Adapted from Great Horns of the North Wildly Blowing

Adapted from Great Horns of the North Wildly Blowing: War in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Greenwood Press, 2003. Presented at the Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, April 2003. Janet Brennan Croft, University of Oklahoma, jbcroft@ou.edu

These grey days, wasted in wearily going over, over and over again, the dreary topics, the dull backwaters of the art of killing, are not enjoyable. (Carpenter 78)

J.R.R. Tolkien served with the British Army during World War I, seeing action in northern France in June through October of 1916. What did Tolkien's experiences, as a soldier and a reader, teach him about tactics and strategy? How did his military training affect his depiction of warfare? Just as with Tolkien's depictions of modern heroism in an archaic world, the anachronistic military techniques that made their way into Middle-earth illustrate Tolkien's criticisms of both ancient and modern ways of making war.

Before the war, Tolkien might have gained some casual familiarity with the basics of classical tactics and strategy through his reading. As a student of Greek and Latin at King Edwards School, he is likely to have read Xenophon, Tacitus, Polybius, Caesar, Arrian, and so on, before learning Anglo-Saxon and discovering sources in the Northern literature such as the Battle of Maldon. But it is difficult to acquire skill in strategy and tactics through reading and study of historical examples alone (especially if one is not reading with that purpose in mind) - formal training and experience are better teachers. Ongoing training is essential to a country's military readiness. During World War I, "[t]he western front ate up young front-line officers partly because of the lack of training and education of senior officers and their staffs" (Higham 49). Younger officers who had started their training after 1902 had the advantage of a modernized, post-Boer War education at Sandhurst and other military academies and through the Officer Training Corps attached to the public schools, but their elders and commanders were still most familiar with the now-outdated tactics developed during the Peninsular War and proven in colonial actions (Higham 48-9). The early years of the war decimated this well-trained core of younger officers and left men hurried through their training to take their place. One soldiers' manual written in 1916 states that recruits normally trained for three months to a year before the war, but now "the time is very considerably shortened" ("The Major" 45). A book on the British army system for the American soldier describes the course of training Tolkien would have gone through. The officer candidates are first trained in small cadet camps, then:

Tolkien touches on his training experiences in several of his letters. Writing to Edith Bratt from Oxford in October and November 1914, he mentions drilling with the University Officer Training Corps, marching in the rain on a Saturday and spending "ages" cleaning his rifle afterwards (Letters 7). At first he called drill "a godsend," even though it was combined with his regular academic responsibilities, saying it had preserved him from the "Oxford 'sleepies'" (Carpenter 73). In July 1915 he began officer training with the Lancashire Fusiliers and learned to drill recruits in platoon formation (Carpenter 77) . In August he was doing "trench drill" and attending lectures on "the dull backwaters of the art of killing" (Carpenter 77-8). In November 1915 he wrote about bomb-throwing practice with dummies and dealing with drill in extremes of heat and cold (Letters 8), and in March 1916 he mentioned reviewing military lecture notes (Letters 8). Training exercises continued at the base camp in Étaples after he arrived in France (Carpenter 81), and even closer to the front, where the troops had physical training and bayonet practice (Carpenter 82). Back in England during his long recovery from trench fever, he started additional signalling training (Carpenter 95). According to his daughter Priscilla, Tolkien learned horseback riding during his basic officer training (Armstrong 31); he would also have learned some basic rudiments of cavalry drill during his few brief months with King Edward's Horse in 1912 (Carpenter 58).

Small pocket books about military drill and training were widely available during the Great War. In 1914 His Majesty's Stationery Office authorized Harrison and Sons to print handbooks on Army Accounts, Ballooning, Camel Corps Training, Chiropody, Cooking, Drum and Flute Duty, Hygiene, Law, Telescopic Sights, X-rays, and a long list of other military topics (Signalling, (1)-(23)). Another London firm published Soldiers on Service in 1915, a practical handbook on how to prepare for going to the front. With chapter headings like 'Feet, Care of' and 'Sea Voyage, Arrangements on board,' this small book was designed to prepare both officers and Other Ranks for embarkation to France and the trenches. Officers were given £50 to buy their kit, and limited to 35 pounds of baggage. The list of suggested items for the field kit spans two and a half pages, and includes the advice that "one can scarcely have too many socks and handkerchiefs" (Wyndham 11). One can easily picture Sam stowing his kit about his person as suggested by the author: "In Pockets: Clasp-knife […] handkerchief […] field-dressing, matches or tinder lighter, pipe and tobacco […] In Haversack: Knife, fork, spoon, mug […] In Holdall: Hussif (with needle and thread), soap, boot-laces […] razor, shaving-brush […] In Valise: […] muffler, knitted waistcoat […]" (Wyndham 34). Another book includes a recipe for Irish Stew very similar to Sam's "herbs and stewed rabbit" - except that Sam had to just wish for the 'taters' (Camps, Billets, Cooking, 173).

Drilling a platoon of new recruits was part of the training of young officers, one that would have taken up much of Tolkien's time during the latter half of 1915, until he began to specialize in signalling. A 1917 pamphlet designed to "assist Platoon commanders in training and fighting their Platoons" (Instructions, 3), advises officers in basic attack and defense fighting in trench-to-trench combat and open warfare. General tactical principles are listed: aim at surprise, reconnoiter before movement, post sentries, guard your flanks and attack your enemy's flanks, send information back to your Company Commander, and hold what you gain (Instructions, 9-10). Platoon commanders were expected to develop the offensive spirit and bloodthirstiness in their men.

A pocket book on bayonet fighting published in 1916 details one of the training methods used in the Anzac and British Expeditionary Forces. The instructor combines what appear to be techniques from quarterstaff fighting, fencing, and jiu-jitsu, and rather euphemistically speaks of "delivering 'point'" to a downed opponent or "bringing the knees smartly up opponent's lower parts" (McLaglen 12-3). The grip Gollum uses to force Sam to drop his sword outside Shelob's lair is described in detail in this book (McLaglen 12). As the author says,

since the invention of modern artillery it has been intimated on the highest military authority that warfare would be conducted in future at long range. This war proves the absolute falsity of that as a complete statement of the case. Little did military experts think that a great modern war would turn into siege warfare. (McLaglen 3-4)

Siegfried Sassoon recalls his bayonet training at Flixécourt in the spring of 1916, a few months before Tolkien, taught by a "massive sandy-haired Highland Major" with "homicidal eloquence" and "genial and well-judged jokes" (Sassoon 14-5). By the time Tolkien was being drilled in the bayonet in France, it was well established as an essential skill for trench warfare.

Tolkien's specialized training in signalling included "Morse code, flag and disc signalling, the transmission of messages by heliograph and lamp, the use of signal-rockets and field-telephones, and even how to handle carrier-pigeons" (Carpenter 78). Signalling manuals written in 1914 instruct the soldier in the use and care of semaphore flags, binoculars, telescopes, and signalling lamps; the message form and how to use it; keeping records of messages sent and received and using ciphers; how a signalling team works together in the field; how to organize and locate a station for maximum efficiency and secrecy; dispatch riding by horse, motor, or ordinary cycle; training of men by the signalling officer; map-reading and map-making; and laying cable and using telephones (Signalling; Training Manual -- Signalling).

Map-making seems to have been one of the skills Tolkien most enjoyed learning, judging by the many maps of Middle-earth on which he lavished so much time and effort. One map he drew during World War I survives and is reproduced in The Tolkien Family Album; it shows an area of trenches, drawn after October 17, 1916, based on information from prisoners and aerial photographs (J. Tolkien and Tolkien 40). Although Carpenter does not mention it in his authorized biography, it is almost certain that Tolkien learned military map-making during his officer training, if he was assigned to create such a map. This is another specialty where training manuals were widely available, teaching skills such as orienting the map, surveying contours, sketching, and using standard signs and abbreviations (e.g., Barnes; Grieves; Stuart).

While the authors of J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator had access to a great deal of material drawn in Tolkien's childhood, they do not indicate that he drew any maps before those used in The Hobbit. Hammond and Scull compare these maps to medieval maps, because of Tolkien's stylized representations of topography and his use of a woodcut-like technique for The Lonely Mountain (94). However, the style Tolkien used for his working maps also owes something to the map-making skills he learned as a signalling officer. The final version of the map of Wilderland, as published in The Hobbit, looks entirely medieval - even the dotted line indicating a road is a convention dating back at least to woodcuts of the 1500's (Harvey, Medieval 80, 84). But the earlier sketch reproduced in The Annotated Hobbit shows topographical contour lines within Mirkwood (plate 4), which were not invented until the 1730s and not used widely until a century later (Harvey, History 182). The "first Silmarillion map" also uses contour lines (Shaping of Middle-earth plate ii-v), as do other early maps included in the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth. Tolkien considered his son Christopher more talented at map-making and eventually called on his skills to redraw the maps for The Lord of the Rings for publication (Letters 177). Christopher Tolkien's large area map and map of the Shire are consistent with medieval maps and use perspective drawings to indicate mountains and forests, but the detail map of Gondor, Rohan, and Mordor in The Return of the King uses contour lines.

While maps are important and mentioned frequently in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, leaders are never depicted consulting them before a battle, nor does anyone appear to have sketched a copy of a map to carry on the journey. In a nice added touch in Peter Jackson's The Two Towers, Faramir is shown consulting a map to determine where Sauron is most likely to strike. Rivendell is a repository of many maps, and Aragorn and Gandalf are said to have consulted them before the Company sets out. Merry and Frodo also looked at them, but Pippin doesn't retain a clear memory of them, and of course "maps conveyed nothing to Sam's mind" (Fellowship 299).

Tolkien offers little background on how the soldiers of the various forces in Middle-earth were trained. Aragorn's military education is summarized in the appendixes - he apprenticed himself under an alias to several military leaders in Middle-earth and rose through the ranks (Return 337-44, 370-1). It is logical to deduce from the way the Rohirrim encircled Aragorn and his companions at their first encounter that they were accustomed to close-order cavalry drill. They ride "with astonishing speed and skill," and halt "without a word or cry" (Towers 34). As Barbara Armstrong has pointed out, "[a] great deal of experience is needed for a troop to do this, steering with the left hand and carrying lances in the right. Few places other than cavalry riding schools would see such a manoeuvre in this century" (30-1).

It is likely that in most of the cultures of Middle-earth, education in strategy came in the form of storytelling - passing down the wisdom and folly of earlier leaders orally, just as the Greeks did with The Iliad. We see a glimpse of this in The Hobbit, when the dwarves sit in the tunnel leading to Smaug's lair and discuss "dragon-slayings historical, dubious, and mythical, and the various sorts of stabs and jabs and undercuts, and the different arts devices and stratagems by which they had been accomplished" (Hobbit 241). The first movie of Peter Jackson's trilogy interpolates a scene where Boromir spars with Merry and Pippin on the road to Moria (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, scene 25); it is reasonable to assume that the more knowledgeable members of the Company would instruct the inexperienced hobbits in self-defense tactics at the very least, although there is no support for this in the text. Tolkien apparently did not always find his training sessions interesting and useful, so perhaps it is only natural that he did not bother to depict military training in his books. He admits to working on his histories of the Gnomes "at lectures in cold fogs," among other places where an good officer should be paying attention, and writes to Christopher that his World War II camp experiences sound just as "exasperating" as his own were (Letters 78).

There is very little description of formal battlefield communication techniques in Tolkien's works, which is perhaps surprising considering his background. It is risky to assume that because a thing is not mentioned, it is not there, but given his distaste for modern warfare, it is entirely possible Tolkien did this deliberately. Perhaps his experiences had also convinced him of the untrustworthiness of signalling under field conditions. However, the reliable use of signalling devices to convey coded information is ancient; Sun-tzu's Art of War, most likely written in the 6^th century B.C.E., quotes an even older author who says "When voice cannot be clearly heard, drums and gongs are used; when eyesight cannot clearly observe, battle standards and flags are used" (Sun-tzu 72).

Both sides use horns and trumpets for sounding a charge or rallying a scattered force, and during the Battle of Pelennor Fields, trumpets in Minas Tirith sound a retreat (Return 122). Some of these horns have long histories, like the one Boromir sounds upon leaving Rivendell or the one given to Merry "as a memorial of Dernhelm and the horns of the Mark at the coming of the morning" (Return 256). One horn-call that conveys specific information is the Horn-cry of Buckland, used by Fatty Bolger when Crickhollow is attacked by the Black Riders (Fellowship 188) and again by Merry to rouse the Hobbits during the Scouring of the Shire (Return 286). Because this horn-call has a very specific meaning, it might be inferred that there are other calls with specific meanings as well, at least among the Hobbits.

Banners and flags in Middle-earth are apparently used to indicate the leader's position in battle but nothing else - Tolkien does not describe them being used to convey coded signals or directions to the troops. Théoden's banner-bearer is actually named and his death is mentioned. The banner of Rohan attracts the attention of the chieftain of the Haradrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and when Théoden hews down their leader and his flag, the Southrons flee in terror. Théoden identifies the leader with his banner as he lies dying - "I felled the black serpent" (Return 118). The banner of Rohan is given to Éomer as symbol of the passing of the kingship. The White Tree banner wrought by Arwen for Aragorn is a symbol of her belief in him and his cause, but this is not a meaning with particular relevance on the battlefield. However, the banner does proclaim one important symbolic meaning when it is first displayed on the captured corsairs - the allies plan to restore the kingdom of Gondor, and this ship bears the man who will be their leader.

Several groups also use drums for communication. The orcs in Moria drum in the depths; after Pippin throws a pebble down the well, their noise sounds "disquietingly like signals of some sort" (Fellowship 327). Their drums and horns alert the Company to the impending attack in the Chamber of Mazarbul. The Woses in Druadan Forest actually do seem to encode information in their drumbeats: "Thus they talk together from afar," as one of the Riders comments (Return 105). Drums are used to signal the orcs and mountain-trolls wielding the battering ram Grond at the gates of Minas Tirith (Return 102).

The beacon flares on the peaks between Minas Tirith and Rohan convey no specific information; they simply show that Gondor is in need of help from its allies (Return 19). Errand-riders are sent out at the same time to expand on the message of the beacons and bear the Red Arrow to Meduseld. While flashes of light or puffs of smoke have long used beacons to convey coded messages, the signalers of Gondor seem to use them for one pre-determined message only. As Gandalf explains to Pippin, at one time the kingdom of Gondor had used the palantíri to communicate with her allies (Return 20); in ancient times at least there had been the possibility of real-time communication across a distance.

However, Sauron has long since corrupted the remaining palantíri to his will, and uses them to communicate with Saruman and influence Denethor. He also uses the Nazgûl as airborne messengers and gatherers of information. (It is interesting to note that in The Hobbit, Thorin and Dain use birds in a similar fashion, and at this point in the story the Dwarves are being depicted as less than sympathetic characters.) Sophisticated battlefield communication can allow commanders to stay out of the front lines and direct their troops from safety (which Tolkien depicted as morally questionable), but it can also give them access to essential information about the tide of battle and other fronts of the war. Why did the allies have no kind of efficient battlefield communication equipment, given Tolkien's war training and the level of technology they appear to have had? It seems clear that the absence of even the simplest low-tech coded message signalling among the allies reinforces Tolkien's opinion that battles should be led from in front, where the commander can gather intelligence and act on it simultaneously. The loss of the palantíri, and the fact that nothing has been developed to take their place, also emphasizes that Gondor and her allies have declined from their former greatness during their long resistance to Sauron.

John Keegan sees the problem of real-time intelligence as a serious limiting factor in personal leadership and command.

Particular knowledge -- of the enemy's whereabouts, strength, state, capabilities and intentions -- is [...] the material on which effective command thrives. [...] [I]n pre-industrial society, particular knowledge was generated in quantities small enough to be handled by an individual, but reached him at a speed not much faster than armies moved and so tended to be out of date when received [...] [O]nce industrial technologies -- of which the telegraph was the first -- allowed intelligence to outpace the movement of armies, its volume at once increased to exceed the capacity of any one man to collect and digest it.[...] [T]he delegation of information-processing to subordinates imposes a remove between the commander and his besetting realities […].

Château generalship -- in some sense, an acceptance of the logic of circumstance -- was one reaction to this development. (Keegan 326)

As Keegan readily admits, "The problem of 'real time' intelligence probably defies solution" (327). Keegan has pointed out elsewhere that the speed of human decision-making cannot be altered, even though the velocity of events and the reporting of those events continues to accelerate - "the human mind and tongue work no faster in 1987 […] than in 334 BC" (348). Having too much information to assimilate hampers decision-making as surely as having no real-time intelligence at all. Tolkien's approach to this dilemma is to show his allied leaders in the field making effective on-the-spot decisions with limited information, while the enemies, who have access to more information with less time lag through the palantíri and the Nazgûl, overlook crucial points and make poor decisions. The allies understand that they must make up for limited real-time information by out-thinking and out-maneuvering the enemy, by considering possibilities he cannot comprehend, and by trusting each other to act effectively even when out of communication range.

The presence or absence of military techniques clearly influenced by Tolkien's own World War I experiences can be taken as an indication of his opinion of either their utility or their moral value. Formal training was not depicted, though implied among the Rohirrim, and this may echo the opinions Tolkien expressed in his letters about the usefulness of repetitive drill. Maps play a vital role in Middle-earth, but are not described in conjunction with battle planning, perhaps because soldiers fighting to repel invading forces on their home soil should be familiar with their own territory and have the moral advantage of not being the aggressor starting the war. But it is clear that for Tolkien, techniques and technology for signalling and intelligence do have moral resonances. The allies are restricted to techniques that require their commanders to be in the field and their scouts to rely solely on their personal skills to avoid capture or death, while the enemy can observe and command from afar, evading the risks of personal battlefield command entirely. In The Lord of the Rings, every commander who leads from behind the lines is on the side of the enemy or under his influence, and Tolkien's depiction of military techniques reinforces his moral judgement that a leader should be in the forefront of his own troops at all times.

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