[Kuruharan]

This has become a pretty broad thread.

I'm not sure if there are songs or poems about Harold's or Alfred's exploits, but I suspect if there were they would depict them as displaying reckless courage over tactical cunning.

I’m sure there are. I am tragically unfamiliar with them, or at least I’ve forgotten reading about them. I know that Alfred’s story in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (an account which he was so thoughtful to sponsor for us) portrayed it as being more of a rags-to-riches story more than anything else.

Harold’s victory at Stamford Bridge is so overshadowed by his defeat at Hastings that perhaps not as much attention was paid to it by the English. There is a saga about the death of the Norwegian Harald. That one is certainly steeped in the traditional heroic mode, although (as usual) over the course of his life Harald did a number of things that according to that mode were decidedly unheroic.

Anyway…

Well, I suspect that if Theoden had 'bravely charged the army guarding the road rather than chicken-heartedly going through Druadan Forest' (& won) he would have been held in even higher esteem than he was, & if his forces had been totalled by Druadan ambush in the forest, he would have been condemned for his 'cowardice' in refusing battle on the road.

Possibly no and probably yes. (Confusing enough?)

If he had defeated the army on the road his own force would have been in such shambles as to be no use in relieving the siege of Minas Tirith. Theoden clearly possessed a strong sense of purpose in what it was he was trying to do and what was needed in the situation.

Yes, if he’d been ambushed and wiped out to the last man in the woods it would not have been good.

I don't see this - Sauron had offered them terms of surrender - he wanted control, he wanted slaves, & he wanted that as quickly & easily as possible.

Sauron was a pathological liar. Note the bit about “faithless and accursed.” Under no circumstances could the leadership of his enemies be allowed to escape or live. They could be the source of much trouble later. If I’d been Sauron I would certainly have killed them as quickly as possible. And why spare the army when a tremendous massacre could be used to inspire terror. I’d almost have rather that they fought so that I could give them a good trouncing and cripple the morale of the survivors on the other side of the river. Remember these were his enemies in arms that had marched right up to his gate.

Double Anyway…

Perhaps something about the appeal of ofermod is it attempts to provide comfort for the loss of family and friends. It is perhaps easier to accept if they died in a Thermopylaesque bout of over-heroics rather than as a result of “dear old Beorhtnoth was an overheated twit who did not understand his business.”