How many in Battle of 5 Armies?

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by skip spence

It is told that Elven archers first let arrows rain over the Ork host and that a thousand spearmen charged in afterwards. These spearmen are presumable inly a part of Thranduils army. It is also told that the elven spears and swords shone in the evening sun, indicating that not all Elven melee fighters used spears as their primary weapon, further supporting the theory that the thousand spearmen were not the entire elven army.

So I think my assumtion that the Thranduil brougth several thousand elves out of Grenwood holds out fairly well.

That's a good point. It sounds like 1000 would actually be a low estimate.

[Groin Redbeard]

It looks like either way we go I was wrong.

I've been looking up some pictures of Laketown and I've come across a painting from Alan Lee that would suggest that Laketown was like the city of Venice in our world. I've also been looking at some pictures of the battle and there seems to be no shortage of men fighting. Therefore I believe that Laketown was larger than we think and that Bard's men were about as numerable as the dwarve's force.