Army Of Minas Morgul

[Vorondil]

Does anyone know what beings made up the army that Frodo saw marching away to the Osgiliath?

 

[grendel]

I suspect it was typical of the forces that attacked Minas Tirith: a lot of Eastern men and a lot of orcs.

 

[Vorondil]

I suspect it was typical of the forces that attacked Minas Tirith: a lot of Eastern men and a lot of orcs.

I was intrigued by the cavalry, as I did not think orcs rode horses.

 

[Olorgando]

I suspect it was typical of the forces that attacked Minas Tirith: a lot of Eastern men and a lot of orcs.

I was intrigued by the cavalry, as I did not think orcs rode horses.

The concept of Easterling cavalry had me scratching my head. Southrons would seem to make more sense, as they the would not need to go all the way to the Black Gate to join up with Sauron's forces.

But then I realized I was thinking of the Easterlings taking the same road from the Black Gate to Minas Morgul as Gollum, Frodo and Sam did. Might cause a jumble (at least) at narrow passages (like the place Faramir's rangers attacked the Southrons) if south-moving Easterlings "collided" with north-moving Southrons at such a place.

Small fact which had temporarily slipped my memory: Mordor was surrounded by mountains in the north, west and south - but was open to the east! So Easterlings could have headed towards the passes to Minas Morgul by a much more direct route than the big detour north of the mountains to the Black Gate, then south to Minas Morgul. And while cavalry certainly couldn't navigate the stairs to Shelob's Lair, it could quite well have been possible along the lower pass road that Gollum, Frodo and Sam had to avoid. And then Khamûl was an Easterling, might have done the "recruiting".

 

[Vorondil]

That's possible. I don't think they would be Southrons as they were described as being dressed in red and gold, although they could have been given a uniform I suppose.