A military historian on the Siege of Gondor

[R.R.J Tolkien]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

About a year ago, Bret Devereaux, a historian at UNC, wrote a six-part analysis of the movieverse's Siege of Gondor/Minas Tirith from the perspective of military history. He devotes a fair amount of space to comparing the movie's version to the book, as well, to the universal detriment of the movie (surprise - not).

The analysis starts here, with links to the six parts at the top of the post.

There's some interesting stuff in there! He spends a chunk of time discussing the morale effects of the Witch-King's siege, and highlights just how well Tolkien used his own WWI experiences to write them (in contrast to the movie, the morale battle in the book entirely clears out the gateway for the Witch-King's entry - except for Gandalf). There's also loads of stuff about catapults, and how to capture Osgiliath (Jackson's orcs actually had a decent plan, though Faramovie's response left a lot to be desired), and right now I'm deep into cavalry tactics and why the movie should have ended with a whole lot of dead horses.

hS

Thanks, I shall start digging in tomorrow.

[Zigûr]

Very interesting, especially for the insights into pre-modern military science, something I don't know much about. I'm more up to speed with tactics/strategy/logistics in the Napoleonic and World Wars, and am very much a "Clausewitzian" in that regard. I've only scanned through the first couple so far but it's a subject I find quite curious.

I don't suppose anyone knows of any study of military matters specifically as they apply to the books and Professor Tolkien's own writing? I remember once seeing a book in the University of Sydney library called "Warfare in Fantasy Fiction" (or similar) which had nothing in it about Tolkien; he wasn't even mentioned in the index. It was bizarre.