The War of the Ring breakdown - Could Sauron have won?

what happened in the War of the Ring the backdrop to the story of The Lord of the Rings we hear of armies marching massive battles happening across middle-earth great acts of heroism and destruction so what happened in the War of the Ring hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in deep geek this video is brought to you by my wonderful patreon community from now on I'll be bringing you regular j.r.r tolkien and Lord of the Rings content on this channel as well as the best of other great fantasy and science fiction like a Song of Ice and Fire if you're interested in seeing more of that please click the subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen and the Bell icon the story of the Lord of the Rings is told through the eyes of the members of the fellowship together and apart the small group whose story started in the Shire and ended at Mount Doom in at the gates of Mordor we follow Frodo and Sam under Gandalf's advices the Fellowship grows taking in merry and pippin Aragorn at Bri Legolas Gimli and Boromir at Rivendell before splitting at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring we then follow these characters in their various journeys it's all about individual people's stories and we see events through their eyes which is definitely Tolkien's plan and what makes the story so personal but as you read it you are aware that bigger events are unfolding in the background the continent is at war plans and strategies are hatched armies are on the march great battles are being fought sometimes we see them and sometimes we just hear about them happening somewhere else the story of the Lord of the Rings is the story of a war the War of the Ring with all the tragedy and horror and heroism that that brings this video will tell the story of that war one in which there were dozens of battles tens of thousands died and perhaps a million or more took part first let's look at the build-up to over the years Saren had tried to subjugate middle-earth several times we saw the last of these occasions in the flashback scene at the very beginning of The Lord of the Rings films that was the war of the last alliance between elves and men at the end of that the One Ring was cut from Saran's finger and subsequently lost and Saren himself was vanquished but not gone for good the elves and humans kept a long watchful vigil for his return Gondor built a series of defenses and watch towers around Mordor just in case and Gandalf was dispatched by the Valar along with the other istari to help support encourage and lead to this effort and eventually Gandalf did managed to track down Saren he had been hiding in southern Mirkwood in the ancient stronghold of Dumbledore and the disguise of the necromancer he had been regather encase strength for two millennia on and off there's a bit of a history here about Gandalf's growing suspicions and previous expeditions to dole cold or but the decisive moment was in the year 29 41 of the Third Age when Gandalf finally persuaded the white council himself Elrond Galadriel Saruman Curtin and perhaps some others to join him to attack dole GLE duel Saren was forced to flee to Mordor and formally renounced himself to the world a few years later Gandalf had long suspected war was coming but this was what finally drew Saren out into the open if the air 2941 of the Third Age sounds vaguely familiar that's because it's the same year as the events of The Hobbit we may think of that story as a rather fun adventure but at a macro level it was clear that Gandalf was using the expedition as cover for some high-level strategic moves he wasn't just taking Bilbo on an adventure or even just helping the dwarves reclaim their home he was making preparations for the war to come with Sauron when he left the party to traverse Mirkwood on their own it was because he was heading to South murk to attack dull gold or with the white council and even his support of the Dwarven mission seems to have had an ulterior motive Gandalf knew war was coming and didn't want a creature of chaos like smog on the loose that Saren would surely provoke and used to terrorize the humans dwarves and elves in that part of the world much better thought Gandalf for the Doughty dwarves to be back in control of Erebor and Smaug to be gone for good of course the most important thing that happened on that quest was the one ring passing into the hands of Bilbo Baggins Gandalf had his suspicions about it but at the time no one really understood the significance of what happened I do wonder in passing whether the One Ring took the opportunity to go to Bilbo sensing he would have to pass through Mirkwood closer to Sauron but Gandalf encode disrupted any plans Sarah might have had to claim it by attacking Dahl gold or Saren will surely have sensed Bilbo putting the ring on all those times either way the ring made its way to the Shire and both sides spent the next few decades slowly preparing for war gamble spent a long time researching the history of the Ring and Sauron started to amass his own forces he called the nine ring wraiths back to him in Mordor they hadn't been quiet all that time incidentally the witch-king in particular had spent a very long time destroying and undermining Arnor and Gondor their kingdoms descended from the númenóreans sarin's old enemies Saren also sent his forces searching for the seven rings that Wharf Lords hadn't found three of them by the time of the war was constantly looking for the three elven rings although they were shielded from him and put a lot of energy into trying to find the One Ring even to the extent of sending out the nazgûl to find it Sauron taking his time building his army means that it was huge by the start of the war as well as his own orcs there were trolls half trolls from far Herod wargs men from Herod easterling's from the rune navel support from the Corsairs of umber basically most of the eastern south of the map of middle-earth that we know swore fealty to Sauron the armies were led by the nazgûl who were incredibly powerful and very hard to kill and of course they also had those allah fans as the hobbits called them those huge elephant like creatures against that were the elves who were severely depleted in numbers dwarves who had also fallen from the height of their powers and humans of the two great successor powers to Numenor Gondor and are nor are nor had been destroyed in a long campaign by the witch-king of Angmar centuries earlier and Gondor though still powerful was not exactly under strong leadership with Denethor and had pulled back a lot from its former defensive structures against a possible attack from Mordor all told Sirhan's army was better prepared more United and several times the size of their opponents we can say with quite a lot of certainty that had this come down to just one army against another then Saren would have won this clear disparity in army sizes played into both sides strategies for the war Gandalf Elrond Galadriel and Coe clearly decided that they couldn't just march on Mordor and expect a win hence the stealth mission to destroy the ring a reliance on surprise attacks and pincer movements at places like the Hornburg and the Pellinore fields and high-risk Gamble's like arrogance rallying of the army of the dead Saren on the other hand seems mostly to have relied on brute force and sheer weight of numbers breaking that down a little bit more his plan was to focus first with the bulk of his forces on eliminating Gondor as a threat they were the largest single force opposing him and try and prevent the allies of Gondor from rallying to their cause by launching a wide series of smaller attacks along the Gondor Ian coast against Lothlorien Dale and so on and trying to prevent the famed Riders of Rohan to ministereth in time sir on didn't mind losing troops in this he had plenty to spare and he even kept most of his forces back in reserve right until the very end of the war but it was subtlety stealth and nimble tactics that won the day in the end not sheer weight of numbers anyway all of this brings us to the acknowledged first real battle of the war of the Ring sarens attack on Scalia on June the 20th thirty eighteen of the Third Age to put this into the context of the main story at this point Gandalf had told Frodo about the one ring but Frodo had yet to leave Bag End things were still very calm in the Shire anyway or skille earth was a strategically important city and a symbolically important one too for a long time it was the captain of Gondor before ministereth however at the time of the war of the ring it was largely abandoned although a god Dorian garrison was often placed there to protect the main bridge that crossed the wide and doing River well skill EF was attacked by a small army from Mordor led by the nazgûl Boromir and Faramir led the resistance for Gondor and ended up pushing the enemy back and destroying the bridge of the end doing so a bit of a draw all in all that initial battle over Sauron went back to gathering his forces for a while and sent the nazgûl out on the quiet to try and find the Ring Borromeo meanwhile headed off to the Council of Elrond and Faramir stayed in the area of Athenian north of us Goliath with some Rangers doing a kind of guerilla warfare against any of Sirhan's forces who ventured that far out Frodo and Sam find him there doing just that much later in the story when they passed by that way although it might seem like a bit of a damp squib to start a war sarens intention at this point seems not so much to be kick-starting his invasion as just testing out gone doors defenses and trying to misdirect his opponents by attacking with just a fraction of his forces and committing the nazgûl there he probably bought them a bit of time when he immediately sent them out incognito or as incognito as they could ever be to hunt for the ring Saren also seems to have concurrently launched a small raid against the elves of northern Mirkwood freeing Ghanim so this first phase of the war was actually relatively low-key just one notable battle and a few skirmishes and then everyone settled down to a sort of phony war that lasted for a few months Frodo and then the fellowship made their way eastwards the ring wraiths went out searching for the ring until they got washed away outside Rivendell and everyone was marshalling their forces and defenses at which point we should turn our attention to the third and unexpected actor in this drama Serra man Serra man is a fascinating figure in this war he seems for a while to have been playing both sides and it was only with the outbreak of hostilities that he was forced out into the open we know how he captured Gandalf in all think and when Gandalf escaped he told the Council of Elrond about seramins betrayal but - that same month the Black Riders also came to visit Sara man seeking Baggins and the Shire and he lied to them saying he'd never heard of the place obviously hoping to find the ring himself first the Black Riders rode off but soon found one of cerumen spies who admitted everything and the Black Riders reported seramins treachery back to Sara Sara man tried to pretend to be working for Saren for a while after that but the game was up exactly how and when Sara man became corrupted is something I will cover in another video but by the time of the war of the ring and for some time earlier it is very clear Sara man was trying to get the ring for himself playing one side off against the other but once he knew his treachery was discovered by both sides he had a little option than to go it alone and he immediately launched into a flurry of activity first of all he raised an army a lot of this seems to have been done at remarkable speed although I'm sure he had made lots of preparations beforehand what we saw in the movies of Gandalf arriving at all thanked while it was still peaceful and then seeing the destruction of nature and a massing of a huge aqua Adak high and a wolf army during the couple of months he was captured there is pretty accurate to the books cerimon also seems to have struck an alliance with the dun Lending's the humans from dun land just north of Isengard and to the west of the Misty Mountains they had an historical grudge against the bro Hyrum so seem to have been more than happy to join any cause that brought them into conflict with them cerimon also sent out spies and search parties looking for the ring and the fellowship given the unique geography of middle-earth with mountain ranges and deep rivers making east-west travel so difficult cerimon really could cover all the passes and possible routes of travel we encountered a few of these sets of search parties along the way most significantly did I look high party that detect the fellowship and captured merry and pippin after the breaking of the fellowship it was around the time of seramins amassing his army that he also sent a bunch of ruffians probably done Lending's to the shire to rough things up a bit this will become important again right at the end of the war with the scouring of the shire but it's worth noting that cerimon had been planning ahead even at this stage but let's return to what seramins plan actually was yes like everyone else he was hunting for the ring he knew that that was the single most important factor in this conflict but while he was trying to find that he also embarked on a major military offensive most of the battles in this middle section of the war weren't Sirhan's forces on the offensive but seramins his target was Rohan and looking back at the map it's easy to see why if you ignore treacherous mountain passes and abandoned dwarven mines the only route between the west and east of middle-earth for hundreds of miles was the gap of Rohan that stretch of land between the bottom of the Misty Mountains and the north of the White Mountains if you controlled that you would have a huge tactical advantage over everyone who wanted to control all of the Kanto and so cerimon went all out to destroy the current holders of that land that row Hyrum he sent the bulk of his forces out to attack the army of Rohan which was under the control of thier dread the king's son at the Fords of the river Isen this attack wasn't entirely unexpected the row Hyrum had become aware of Salman Swift re-building but the speed of the attack and the tactics were a surprise cerimon had instructed his forces not to try to break the army or gain control of the forts but focus all their energy on killing fear dread and they succeeded the king's son was killed and as soon as that blow had been struck a horn was blown and seramins army withdrew once again leaving the Rohirrim confused badly damaged mourning the loss of the air to their throne but still in control of the forts of Iceland so what was Sara man up to it seems that his strategy wasn't so much about securing a military victory over the red harem as gaining control over them as we know Grima Wormtongue king theoden's chief advisor was working for sara man and poisoning and dulling his mind against any action against Sara man Grima was controlling Fayed in and Grima was working for Sara man so Sara man had his control the plan was working perfectly bad for two people who were resisting and who Grima hadn't yet managed to fully poison theoden's mind against his son third red and his nephew eomer so Sara man's plan was to kill both of those people the first battle of the Fords of Ison that we've just looked at was all about killing Fayed red once that was done his forces could withdraw as they did i Amir meanwhile was in a Duras with Ferdinand Grima grimas planned for him seems to have been to put him into a place of opposition to his uncle so that he could be arrested this opportunity arose when ama heard of an orc troop entering their lands he sought permission from the King to ride out and confront it but Fayed in and rimas influence refused a.m. air went anyway it's good that he did because those orcs were the ones that had captured merry and pippin a.m. air and his men attacked the orc band killing them with some losses and unbeknownst to them merry and pippin escaped into Fangorn amidst the chaos a mare returned to EDIUS encountering Aragorn Gimli and Legolas along the way and allowing them free passage a mare was open about disobeying the king's orders and allowing strangers in the land to go free without the King's permission and was imprisoned by Grima so everything at this stage was going right for sera man and it got even better an oaken brand the new commander of RO hands Western Army decided to take the battle back to sera man by attacking the Fords Voisin once more in what became known as the second battle of the forts vison it was a valiant attempt on his part but his two thousand men were scattered by the overwhelming force of numbers from sera man's army and that really was the apex of sera man's war effort because that very day two crucial events were taking place gandalf healed King Theoden casting Grima Wormtongue out of a dress and in Fangorn the entmoot was happening which obviously culminated in the ents deciding to march on Isengard with most of sera man's army out at battle he clearly hadn't expected the ends to take up arms against him Isengard was not particularly well defended and the ents destroyed it and flooded it all except the main tower of orthanc where sera man and then also Grima took up refuge while that was all happening sera man's forces were also being annihilated at the Battle of the Hornburg or Helms deep as we know it from the movies Helms deepest technically the valley or gorge and the Homburg is the actual fortress I have to say that although the Battle of Helm's Deep on-screen was an astonishing piece of cinema worthy of every accolade it receives it's also one of the parts of the film that veers the most away from the story in the books in the two towers movie Phaeton had his most vulnerable people take the young the elderly and so on there were just 300 trained fighters to defend it children were pressed into action in ill-fitting armor the very future of the Rohirrim was at stake the elves sent some archers to help out a ma led the relief force and so on none of that happened in the book in the book Phaeton newly healed by gandalf decided to take the fight away from his people by leading a force of about a thousand cavalry to the forts of iceland where he'd last heard of seramins army being on route he learned the defeat of the second battle at the Fords of Ison and changed his plan instead taking his thousand soldiers to help fortify the Hornburg an ancient fortress considered the strongest point in Rohan Serra man's army tens of thousands strong made up of auric high and a Lending's arrived during the night and started to attack the fortress immediately they broke through the outer earthworks defense known as Helms dike easily then proceeded to assault the huge wall known as the Deeping wall that ran right across the deep valley after a few attempts of trying to climb over it or sneak under it they eventually decided to just blast a hole through it and seramins forces poured through Feridun and Aragorn for he Gimli and Legolas were there decided to make a break for it leading a charge out from the fortress cutting right through seramins army and making it to the other side in the movie this was a heroic do-or-die charge but there's no doubt in the books that this was a calculated escape attempt there were no women or children in the fortress to protect this was just a bid for freedom they made it through to the other side and then they noticed two things firstly a group of horns a kind of lesser nth had positioned themselves serves to prevent any of seramins forces from escaping the valley and secondly Gandalf had returned with kirkin brand and the thousand or so members of his army that had regrouped after being scattered by the Second Battle of the Fords of Ison they charged and the done lending surrendered on the spot and the uruk-hai fled the field need to be massacred in the forest seramins army was destroyed utterly all told seramins involvement in the war was significant thousands died but very brief from first sending out his forces at the first battle of the forts of Iceland to destruction Helms deep in Isengard took just nine days in the context of the wider war of the Ring the most meaningful moment actually came right afterwards when Pippin accidentally then Aragorn purposefully gazed into the plant ear that had been at Isengard seeing Pippin made Saren think that Sara man must have captured the ring bearer and that the ring must still be far from mortal and seeing Aragorn the heir of ISIL door will have prompted sound to act quickly before the true king could rally opposition whether that was the plan or not Sauron did now move quickly he sent his naval allies that Corsairs of umber to Harry and raid the south coast of Gondor so the Gondor Ian's troops based there couldn't come to reinforce ministereth he sent a force from Mordor of around six thousand orcs to capture the river island fortress of care Andros we talked earlier about the strategic importance of Goliath's bridge over there and doing care Andros was the other way for an army to cross the river the idea here seems to have been to prevent the Rohirrim from joining in the coming battle at ministereth the orc force then moved on to march up the road that went between Rohan and Gondor hoping to engage the Rohirrim as they headed southeast if so the plan sort of succeeded the Riders of Rohan were delayed they had to find another way to ministereth to avoid a conflict along the way but as we know they did make it just in time so all is set up now for Saran's big push his main target will be ministereth although he has sent smaller forces elsewhere to prevent any other armies coming to Gondor Zaid the elves and dwarves do not have enough soldiers to send armies to ministereth Rohan has been battered by sermons failed attempt to join the war and is in short supply we'll look at what happened next in the battle of the pelennor fields next time if you'd like to see more videos on the world of JRR tolkien and the Lord of the Rings please click on the link to the playlist on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or get access to some content I produced just for my patrons please click on the link to my patreon page on the right of the screen thanks for watching that's all for this time and I'll see you again see

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 327,315

Rating: 4.9191446 out of 5

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, lotr, the lord of the rings, war of the ring, the war of the ring, battle of the hornburg, battle of helms deep, first battle of the fords of isen, second battle of the fords of isen, osgiliath, osgiliath invaded, osgiliath battle, helms deep, hornburg, saruman, theoden, faramir, boromir, gandalf, eomer

Id: eZNBqkpojRw

Length: 24min 54sec (1494 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2020