As always, dear readers, welcome.
Sauron, although he rather rashly placed much of his power (as well as his life force) in what is, basically, a magic ring, has always struck me as rather a practical person when it comes to war and foreign affairs. In order to conquer the West, he’s:
1. turned his rather bleak realm into a giant military camp
2. brought back the final destroyer of Arnor, the Witch King of Angmar, as his chief lieutenant
3. made treaties with peoples to the east and south to bolster his already extensive armies and cleverly turned pirates loose to raid the southern shores of Gondor to distract his opponents and force them to divide their forces
4. corrupted one of the West’s traditional allies, Saruman, turning him into a kind of “Mini Me”
5. weakened another, Rohan, through a spy in the king’s court, Grima, who has somehow turned that king into a prematurely-aged man
6. worked on the mind of the commander of Gondor, Denethor, using an ancient communications device, making him suspicious of his younger son and promoting a defeatist attitude
As well, he seems quite aware of what we call geo-politics, as we see in his demands at the Black Gate:
“ ‘The rabble of Gondor and its deluded allies shall withdraw at once beyond the Anduin, first taking oaths never again to assail Sauron the Great in arms, open or secret. All lands east of the Anduin shall be Sauron’s for ever, solely. West of the Anduin as far as the Misty Mountains and the Gap of Rohan shall be tributary to Mordor, and men there shall bear no weapons, but shall have leave to govern their own affairs. But they shall help to rebuild Isengard which they have wantonly destroyed, and that shall be Sauron’s and there his lieutenant shall dwell: not Saruman, but one more worthy of trust.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 10, “The Black Gate Opens”)
Reading this passage, however, I’m puzzled:
“Time passed. At length watchers on the walls could see the retreat of the out-companies. Small bands of weary and often wounded men came first with little order; some were running wildly as if pursued. Away to the eastward the distant fires flickered, and now it seemed that here and there they crept across the plain. Houses and barns were burning. Then from many points little rivers of red flame came hurrying on, winding through the gloom, converging towards the line of the broad road that led from the City-gate to Osgiliath.” (The Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter 4, “The Siege of Gondor”)
As we know, JRRT himself had been a soldier, though perhaps a reluctant one,
and thus would have been well aware of the saying, sometimes attributed to Napoleon, that “an army marches on its stomach”. In 1916, such an army needed massive supply dumps,
which needed railroads to bring food and ammunition to them.
From there, wagons
and, in time, early trucks,
then mules and horses would have taken supplies farther forward
and, from there, the troops themselves might have formed what were called “carrying parties”.
Image7: carrying
(This is actually a “wiring party”, with its “screw pickets”, which were twisted into the ground and used to hold up the barbed wire, but it can stand in for a “carrying party”. For more on “wiring parties”, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiring_party )
One fact alone might suggest how big the task of keeping the British Army supplied : “By 1918, the British were sending over 67 million lbs (30 million kg) of meat to the Western Front each month.” (This is from an article entitled “The Food That Fuelled the Front” from the Imperial War Museum website, which you can see here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-food-that-fuelled-the-front )
This was a vast, modern army, with all the modern technology available in 1918 to enable resupply (such supplying is called “logistics”). Sauron’s army is of a much earlier time, its basis seemingly infantry, armed with swords, spears, and bows,
(Alan Lee)
assisted by a certain number of oliphaunts,
(Alan Lee)
horsemen,
(These are actually Mongols, but all the text says is “Before them went a great cavalry of horsemen moving like ordered shadows…” The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter 8, “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol”, leaving it up to us to imagine what they might have looked like.)
and perhaps a warband of wargs,
(Artist?)
yet its basic needs would have been the same as those of the British Army in which Tolkien served.
To provide a parallel a bit closer to The Lord of the Rings, we might imagine an earlier army, like the army of New Kingdom Egypt
as we might have seen it marching to fight the Hittites
at the Battle of Kadesh, in the summer of 1274BC.
No oliphaunts or cavalry (or wargs) in support, but definitely chariots, maybe 2000 of them.
(Again, Angus McBride, one of my favorite military artists of the 20th century).
The Egyptian army of Rameses II
may have numbered about 20,000, with as many as 4,000 chariot horses, and here are some potential logistic figures for such an earlier army—
Thinking of water alone, the average modern horse will drink 5-10 gallons (19-38 ltrs) of water a day, depending on working conditions, and that same horse needs to eat 15-20 pounds (7-9 kg) of hay. An average present-day American eats about 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) of food per day and drinks 2 quarts (2 ltrs) of water. On the one hand, ancient Egyptians were somewhat smaller than we are and probably less well-fed to begin with, but, on the other, that water requirement is an average and doesn’t factor in marching for miles on dusty summertime roads in the Middle East.
Could Rameses’ army have carried enough supplies with it for the long march (perhaps about 500 miles—about 805km)? Rameses would have had available to him no trains or trucks, but the ancient Egyptians had carts (probably pulled by oxen, as were their plows)
and certainly used pack mules.
As to possible baggage camels,
there is a lot of scholarly argument about their use. Although camel remains (a few depictions, bones, rope from camel hair) are there, there doesn’t appear to be any clear evidence for the use of camels as carriers until much later. Food—the ordinary Egyptian diet was simple, including barley bread
and beer (also made from barley),
so large supplies of barley flour might be carried, but how to carry—and preserve–beer? Water could be substituted, but could it be carried? Or would the Egyptians have done as armies have done throughout history and foraged, picking up supplies of food and drink from the locals, willingly or unwillingly? Both Rameses II’s and Sauron’s armies had horses, but add oliphaunts in Sauron’s, and all in need of fodder, this would include, in season, cutting grass
and, in and out of season, probably looting barns and granaries, as well.
Consider, then, Sauron’s armies and the Pelennor into which they had broken.
We don’t know their numbers, but it’s clear that they are enormous, far outnumbering the defenders of Minas Tirith. And this is what puzzles me. Tolkien was certainly aware of such needs in general—as he once wrote: “I am not incapable of or unaware of economic thought…” (letter to Naomi Mitchison, 25 September, 1954, Letters, 292). And yet—
“It drew now to evening by the hour, and the light was so dim that even far-sighted men upon the Citadel could discern little clearly out upon the fields, save only the burnings that ever multiplied, and the lines of fire that grew in length and speed.”
Perhaps the army brought some provisions with it (Saruman and Sauron’s orcs seem to have had something like field rations, as we learn after they carry off Merry and Pippin), but, if the siege of Minas Tirith had proved to be a long one, what would such a vast host and its beasts have eaten, having destroyed the nearest source of food and fodder? We’ve seen that Sauron was shrewd and showed a great amount of foresight in his pre-war preparations, so my only answer is a question: did JRRT, who certainly had a taste for the dramatic moment–think of the way in which the Rohirrim appear at the edge of the Rammas Echor–
deliberately sacrifice economics for drama? We’ll probably never know for certain, but, if you stand for a moment, on the wall of the first circle of Minas Tirith in the darkness, and see those fires spread across the Pelennor…
As always, thanks for reading.
Stay well,
If you have a yen for conquest, remember to pack a lunch (with carrots for your horse, of course),
And remember that, as always, there’s
MTCIDC
O