I don't remember there being anything carried
With good reason: nothing is mentioned about it. It comes as a complete surprise to both defenders and reader.
Ah yes... much speculation as to what the red flash and dull rumble actually was. Don't think it was gunpowder.
Perhaps I should have said "gunpowder analogue". 😁
A legitimate argument can be made for putting various incidents in the category of spells or sorcery, given that such things certainly exist in ME; it's just my impression that the author was introducing elements pointing to a progression towards a "diabolical
technology" by those seeking domination without scruple. It's of a piece with his comments in The
Hobbit about the technological abilities of the
goblins.
It's similar with the trenches dug by the
orcs around
Minas Tirith, "filled with fire, though how it was kindled or fed, by art or devilry, none could see".
By
art or
devilry. As is so often the case, Tolkin leaves it ambiguous, and argument could be made for either. Yet I believe a hint lies -- literally -- in the "foul sump of oily many-coloured ooze" at the bottom of the crater into which
Frodo & company crawl near the
Black Gate. My interpretation?
Mordor has discovered petroleum.
In any event, it seems clear that all these incidents were informed by the author's experience on the Somme.
As for Caradhras, it has to do with the nature of romance-mode writing. This isn't the place to go into it, so I'll just mention Northrop Frye's comment that the romance world is neither totally alive, like the world of myth, nor mostly dead, like ours.
I must correct my earlier post: you're quite right that only
dragons appear at
Gondolin in the published Silmarillion; I should have made clear that I was referring to BoLT, which I assume Hisoka was talking about. Which means it certainly can't be considered canon.
But neither is it "cannon". 😉