Hi JeffF,
great find on Thorin's bow, I'd not noticed that one!
I'm still convinced there were plenty of Haradrim cavalry. Gandalf's quote is right at the start of the siege on Minas Tirith, as the mounted foray is being planned, when the forces that the Witch King has brought up are those of Minas Morgul. These contained some Southrons, (and likely the black-clothed cavalry of Morgul) but the way I read it is that the majority of the Haradrim arrived later. eg.
Quote:
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Far behind the battle the River had been swiftly bridged and all day more force and gear of war had poured across
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However, by the time of the charge of the Rohirrim these forces were in place and the horsemen of the Haradrim were gathered around the serpent standard of their cheftain.
Quote:
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But the white fury of the Northmen burned the hotter, and more skilled was their knighthood with long spears and bitter. Fewer were they but they clove through the Southrons like a fire-bolt in a forest
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So the Southron cavalry outnumbered the Rohirrim, who were about 5500 strong by that stage, so there should have been at least 6000 Haradrim cavalry, out of their total force of at least 18,000, thrice the number of Rohirrim.
Yes agree with you on the Easterlings, though perhaps the chieftains' chariots were for transport only or 'command vehicles' and thus not sufficiently prominent in the battle to be recorded.
Also agree with the likelihood that the Fiefs of Gondor could field a good force of cavalry, though impossible to say how much. However Minas Tirith itself was poorly provided with horse (led in battle by Hurin the Warder of the Keys), even after reinforcement by Imrahil etc. On the volunteers of Rohan its interesting to note that some had even joined Faramir's Rangers.