Alan Sisto

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All right, we're going to dive right back in.

Cool Military Formations Part 1.

When Isildur and his men were attacked by orcs coming down the slope, Isildur has his men form what's called a thangail, described in the text as a shield wall of two serried ranks that could be bent back at either end if outflanked until it needed became a closed ring.

Now, a shield wall is something that even a casual movie or TV watcher is going to be familiar with.

But how does it work in this context?

Yeah.

Exactly, because it's so densely packed, you're going to get multiple guys with every shot.

Yeah, especially with that 10 to 1 numerical odds, or at least- It helps.

Yeah, it certainly does.

Now-

You had to know this next question was coming if you read the chapter.

Isildur didn't have a lot of archers with him, unfortunately, but the orcs knew there were a few, and they are said to have kept at a distance out of the range of the dreaded steel bows of Numenor.

Now, the footnote there points us to more detail in a description of the island of Numenor, and this is where it gets interesting.

In later days, in the wars upon Middle Earth, it was the bows of the Numenoreans that were most greatly feared.

The men of the sea, it was said, send before them a great cloud as a rain turned to serpents or a black hail tipped with steel.

And in those days, the great cohorts of the king's archers used bows made of hollow steel with black feathered arrows, a full L long from point to notch.