The most epic confrontations in the Tolkien Legendarium.
Note: If you haven't read The Silmarillion and to a lesser degree Unfinished Tales and The Children of Húrin, a lot of these will not be familiar to you. I suggest you just skip this post altogether until and if you read those books. A knowledge of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is certainly required, but it only tells of the Third Age (with some few flashback to earlier days), and many of the grandest armed confrontations occurred in earlier ages, especially for some reason in the First Age, when Morgoth was constantly up to no good and the proud princes of the Noldor were still mighty.
In your opinion, what were the greatest individual or small-group conflicts in the history of Middle Earth? I don't mean grand strategic clashes like the destruction of the rings, nor wars fought by thousands on either side, but individual single-combat duels or one against many or small group versus small group conflicts. These are some of the most dramatic points in the various tales of the Ages, and can make a hero's reputation live in song for generations to come, so I want to know which were the truly epic fights, either because of the tremendous power of both combatants, or a case where a much weaker combatant takes on a stronger one against seemingly hopeless odds or at least dies honorably leaving an account of himself that surprises and awes everyone. No need to go on, you know what I mean by epic!
Here are the choices in no particular order. You can select 10 or as many as you want if you want to describe your reasoning. Likewise, you can describe why some matchups were not as heroic as billed. You can rank them or rate them. It's really up to you and your knowledge of each conflict. You can even put in your own favorite conflicts that I've overlooked. I will weigh in after several others have put their two cents in. For convenience I've numbered them in case it's easier for you to refer to them that way.
1. Fëanor vs Gothmog and his balrogs and many orcs (with only a couple other elves at his side).
2. Boromir against innumerable orcs and úruks defending Merry and Pippin after betraying Frodo.
3. Fingolfin vs Morgoth (after challenging him to single combat and bringing him out of Angband).
4. Ecthelion vs Gothmog (inside Gondolin during the sack of that city).
5. Túrin vs Glaurung (singlehandedly and one-handedly after seemingly everything goes wrong).
6. Beren, Lúthien, and Huan vs Curufin and Celegorm, Carcharoth, Sauron, and Morgoth.
7. Eärendil vs Ancalagon the Black (during the War of Wrath).
8. Bilbo and Bard vs Smaug (in Lonely Mountain and over Lake Town).
9. Éowyn and Merry vs the Witch-King of Angmar on the Pelennor fields.
10. Aragorn, Imrahil, and Éomer vs thousands of orcs and trolls on the Pelennor fields.
11. Gandalf vs Durin's Bane (the balrog of Moria).
12. Gandalf the Grey vs Saruman (their first encounter).
13. Aragorn vs five Black Riders on Amon Sûl (Weathertop).
14. Aragorn meeting Sauron's gaze and matching his will in the palantír of Orthanc.
15. Glorfindel against a balrog outside Gondolin (during the sack of that city).
16. The four returning hobbits in the battle of Battle of Bywater, to rid the Shire of Sharky's mob.
17. Húrin vs Gothmog and his troll guard in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
18. Húrin vs Morgoth (resisting Morgoth's will rather than a physical battle).
19. Gandalf the White vs Saruman (at Orthanc after the ents have made a mess of Isengard).
20. Gil-Galad, Círdan, Elrond, Elendil, and Isildur vs Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom.
21. The ents vs Isengard and its remaining legion of orcs plus a rather hapless Saruman.
22. Sam vs Shelob with Frodo already poisoned.
23. Finwë vs Melkor in Aman trying to retake the stolen silmarils.
24. Aragorn confronting the spirit king Baldor of the oathbreakers and his horde in Dunharrow.
25. Finrod Felagund in chains vs Sauron and a huge werewolf.
26. Orodreth of Nargothrond vs Glaurung and his host.
27. Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor vs Sauron and later vs the Valar.
28. Azaghâl driving back Glaurung to Angband in the Dagor Bragollach.
29. Fingon who drove back a young Glaurung then later nearly slew Gothmog but for treachery.
30. The "Princes of the West" vs the numberless horde at the Morannon (end of ROTK).
31. Huan the hound vs Carcharoth the wolf in single combat during Beren and Lúthien's quest.
32. Frodo vs Smeagol for the ring in the halls of Orodruin (Mount Doom).
33. Thingol defeating the toughest orc ever, Boldog (heh), in single combat.
34. Morwen holding out against the easterlings for several long years with Nienor to care for.
35. Thorondor, king of eagles, against multiple winged dragons in the War of Wrath.
36. Thingol, Beleg, Mablung, Beren, and Huan(!) vs the silmaril-crazed Carcharoth.
Again, I realize this is only for true Tolkien buffs, so feel free to pass it by, but remember if you do you're a big wuss and you should be ashamed of yourself for not reading more about the history of Middle Earth.
3 comments:
I promise I'll get off the Tolkien kick soon. But right now it's on my brain cause I'm going through all my books again. Anyways, don't let me interrupt your comment...
It looks like no one is going to try this one out. I guess no one who reads my blog has also read most of Tolkien's books. Well, I'll list my answers for the void to hear, and if someone scans this in the future and takes an interest, the store's never closed...
I'm gonna go for 10 (but not in order) out of the 36. This should be tough but I think I can toss out at least 15 or so right away. First of all, to be a GREAT encounter, in my mind one of two things has to happen. Either the two foes are really evenly matched and the battle is epic and goes on forever, neither one giving an edge until at last some small thing gives on a victory. This means the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog in Moria was a great battle. They don't get much better than that.
The other type of GREAT confrontation in my mind is the unbelievably crazy/driven/studly and/or badass character who goes up against a foe or a host of foes he seemingly has no business confronting without major backup. Or those who, caught on the defensive, put up a legendary last stand before either prevailing, escaping, or most often, succumbing. This type of heroism is also much remembered.
Therefore I will first chuck out those confrontations which I do not deem to meet these standards of heroism (which is my idea of Epic):
12. Gandalf the Grey vs Sauruman. Gandalf had no chance in this one. Although the movie made it look like there was a D&D battle before he was bound atop Orthanc, in the book it was merely a contest of wills which Saruman, having long been prepared for the confrontation, won easily.
13. Aragorn vs the 5 Black Riders, including the Witch King. The Nazgûl rely almost solely on fear to conquer their foes. As physical opponents they are no match for someone like Aragorn. He has no fear of them whatsoever, and his only concern is for Frodo. His arrival drives the wraiths away, who can do nothing to one who does not fear them.
16. The Battle of Bywater. This was a fun romp just to show how tough the four Hobbits have become in their year or so of adventures, and they are never seriously threatened. Even Sharkey and Grima are so pathetic that they have been reduced to bitter words, and Frodo himself drives them away (before Grima murders Saruman like a dog.)
19. Gandalf the White vs Saruman at Orthanc. In a reversal of #12, this was not a contest in the least. Saruman's voice had lost most of its power and Gandalf (who has returned from Valinor MUCH stronger) was able to break his staff at a great distance with a mere gesture. Owned.
21. Ents vs Orthanc's defense. The ents broke the dike and this one was over. Saruman is his arrogant confidence had at least 3/4 of his army away serving in Iraq, and could do nothing about a bunch of furious tree sheppards beating the crap out of his terrified reserves. Even though he was safe in his tower, he was also a prisoner in it. No contest.
23. Finwë makes a brave but foolhardy attempt to regain the Silmarils wrought by his son and containing the last light of the destroyed trees. But even though he is king of the Noldor, he is still an elf, and Melkor is the most powerful of the Valar, who is second in might in all of creation only to Illúvatar (though by an infinite amount). Melkor in his greed may have lost some of his other powers, like the ability to appear fair, but one thing he could still do was fight. Melkor over Finwë in a first round, one punch knockout. Not really the stuff of legends.
24. Aragorn in the Paths of the Dead. Granted, Aragorn had to have some pretty big marbles to walk into that place and to confront the oathbreakers, but he KNEW they had to obey him because of his heritage and his knowledge of history, thanks to Elrond. Scary, but no real danger.
26. Orodreth vs Glaurung at Nargothrond. In probably Túrin's biggest blunder in a lifetime full of them, he tells the elven messengers of the maia Ossë, vassal of the mighty Ulmo, to get lost when they advise his to destroy the bridge that fords the river protecting Nargothrond from the northern lands, and which is really Glaurung's only easy access to the realm unless he wants to travel over half of Beleriand to go around the river's source. Túrin is basically running the show at this point, and his decision to leave the bridge intact ensures that Glaurung can march right in, paralyze Túrin with his gaze, chop Orodreth to pieces, and claim the cozy city for his own. Túrin also screws over Gwindor, who loved Finduilas, who in turn loved Túrin. But Túrin loved her not, except as a friend, and with her capture along with all the other elves present and their summary execution or more likely imprisonment as thralls within Angband, which Gwindor ironically recently escaped, he's got all the reason in the world to hate Túrin's guts. No real battle here, Glaurung for the win.
27. As great a fleet as Ar-Pharazôn had put together at the behest of his advisor Sauron, you have to wonder what he was thinking deciding to sail it to the lands of Aman. That is a no-no in a Biblical, absolute sort of way. No battle really occurs, the just get sunk and drown and a huge tsunami wipes out the island of Númenor forever. Fool's mate.
33. Thingol defeating the toughest Orc ever. The toughest Orc ever is no match for Thingol, King of the Teleri and Sindar and indeed all Elves in Middle Earth. The end.
34. Morwen resisting the Easterlings. This isn't described much, so it's hard to tell how active a role she actually played. It's remarkable she lived free as long as she did, but I think that might have had more to do with dread of her on the part of the bad men, who thought she was some kind of sorceress, than anything else.
35. Thorondor vs some dragons. This was indeed a mighty feat, and almost deserves to make it past this weeding out list, but in the end I look at it like this: Thorondor was very likely a maia, and not only that but THE lieutenant - the eyes and ears and talons - of Manwë himself. There is great likelihood that Manwë could actually see what Thorondor could and could aid him partially in power even across an ocean. Dragons, on the other hand, no matter how big and scary they are to mortals, are subcreated beings with no souls, and they were likely given orders or controlled directly by Morgoth at a time when he has a whole shitload of other things coming down on him. Excellent victory, but probably not as dazzling as it seems at first. Besides, did any eagle ever lose a fight in any of the books?
36. The Dream Team versus a crazed Carcharoth. This was really just a matter of tracking him down. Yeah, he messed up Beren earlier. But before he spazzed out he lost a close fight to Huan the hound. Throw in Beleg and especially Thingol, who actually LEFT Doriath for once, and the huge crazy beast had no chance. He may have been the most powerful warg-like creature ever, and has a gem in his stomach driving him mad, but he's still just a trumped up warg. Not really an epic fight.
Ok, that the end of my first pass, the weeding pass. We got rid of 13 contestants, which is close to what I predicted! I'll start a new reply for the next whittling down.
Note: #23, Finwë didn't try to regain the Silmarils, he just happened to be in the house where they were kept, and tried to defend them from Morgoth, whereupon he was slain. Sorry about that little lapse in memory.
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