[Tuor of Gondolin]

I don't have the book with me, I'll try to have the
section tomorrow. Yes, 5-1 odds are daunting, but
when you also have the advantage of defense
at Helm's Deep and to retreat into the caves not,
at least in the short run, impossible. Recall that in
the book the defense is quite successful until the
explosives blow up a hole, and even then there is
an effective charge, not the two or three horsemen of the movie.
The thing is,the movie depiction stretches credulity by not even
suggesting the appearance of local defensive forces in the Westfold.
Where is the contingency planning which a younger, able
Theoden would have had prepared, and which Theodred
Eomer, Grimbold, etc. would have
implemented? Recall that in the movie it's only the
smallish Edoras population that is taken to Helm's Deep.
But in the book it's people of the West Emnet who flock there.