Dunlendings - less well armed?

[Ithrynluin]

Unfinished Tales; The Battles of the Fords of Isen
They did not have to wait so long. It was not yet midnight when points of red light were seen coming from the north and already drawing near on the west of the river. It was the vanguard of the whole remaining forces of Saruman that he was now committing to battle for the conquest of Westfold. They came on at great speed, and suddenly all the host burst into flame, as it seemed. Hundreds of torches were kindled from those borne by the leaders of troops, and gathering into their stream the forces already manning the west bank they swept over the Fords like a river of fire with a great clamour of hate. A great company of bowmen might have made them rue the light of their torches, but Grimbold had only a handful of archers. He could not hold the east bank, and withdrew from it, forming a great shieldwall about his camp. Soon it was surrounded, and the attackers cast torches among them, and somethey sent high over the heads of the shieldwall, hoping to kindle fires among the stores and terrify such horses as Grimbold still had. But the shieldwall held. Then, since the Orcs were of less avail in such fighting because of their stature, fierce companies of the Dunlendish hillmen were thrown against it. But for all their hatred the Dunlendings were still afraid of the Rohirrim if they met face to face, and they were also less skilled in warfare and less well armed. (Note 11)

Note 11
They were without body-armour, having only among them a few hauberks gained by theft or in loot. The Rohirrim had the advan­tage in being supplied by the metal-workers of Gondor. In Isengard as yet only the heavy and clumsy mail of the Orcs was made, by them for their own uses. [Author's note.]

Isn't it a little strange that the subjects of Saruman, a Maia of the people of Aulë the great Smith, would be poorly supplied with armour?

Perhaps Saruman relied on great numbers rather than on micromanagement, and simply didn't value the lives of his soldiers much, but considered them to be mere cannon fodder?

Or perhaps the making of weaponry/armour simply wasn't Saruman's province as a Maia of Aulë, perhaps he was more skilled in lore and diplomacy?

Or maybe Saruman, being in a conquering frenzy, simply hadn't gotten round to supplying (all) his servants with armour, as the wording "In Isengard as yet..." suggests?

Just some thoughts. Comments?

 

[baragund]

Simple logistics come to mind. Please bear with me as I don't have a copy of the Tale of Years in front of me as I write this, but not much time passed between the time the Ring was found and the war began so Saruman could not properly arm and train his army. And even though the Dunlendings were enemies of Gondor and the Rohirrim for centuries, they did not become allied with Saruman until a short time before the war.

I think that is some of the source of the references in various sections of LOTR and other writings by JRRT that one of the things that was working in favor of the West was that the discovery of the Ring forced Sauron et. al. to act sooner than they would have liked. Otherwise, they would have had time to build, equip and train their armies to put them mor on par man-for-man with the West.

Make sense?

 

[Arvedui]

Time is a crucial element, and as baragund stated, it probably wasn't enough of it to equip the dunlendings with the high-tech weaponry that the orcs had.

One element that is not hinted at anywhere, is that the Dunlendings were poorly equipped on purpose. From Saruman's point of view, it could have been a part of his overall strategy to have the Dunlendings cut down in size as well. Think about it: Dunlendings and Rohirrim killing eachother, sparing his most loyal servants, the orcs. It would have left him even stronger afterwards. And I have no doubt that Saruman was shrewd enough to think that way.

 

[Inderjit S]

I think the Dunlendings were just there to drive the Rohhirim back with their brutality and strength-how many died didn't really matter, the fact that they were there, did. They were kind of a like a quasi-suicidal element of Saruman's army-to attack the Rohhirim in large numbers and disrupt them as much as possible. I mean would Saruman have kept his (if he made any) promises to them, which would probably be to give them land or autonomy. They may have been a nuisance to him, if a lot of them walked away from the battle still standing. But then again, the company would have been nice-and he did need all the fighters he could get, but if he got the Ring it would have been another matter-they may have been pretty superfluous by then, unless he desired to be a ubiquitous, all-feared despot that is.

 

[Grond]

Dunlendings weren't much into subservience. I am sure they were not heavily armed on purpose. Saruaman's intent was likely to use them as a shield wall, hoping the Rohirrim killed many of them in the process. When the war was over with a victorious Saruman, he would likely have turned his Uruk-hai on the Dunlendings and enslaved them.

 

[Turgon]

I've always viewed the Dunlendings as something akin to the highlanders of our own history. Lightly-armed, and lightly-armoured troops. There is something slightly Celtic about the Hillmen, if only the fact of them being marginalized in their own lands, by their essentially anglo-saxon neighbours.

It's also worth noting that the effective use of armour and weapons requires a good deal of training. If you're fielding a auxilary army at such short notice I would even it say it would be wise to let them fight as per their cultural norm, using weapons and tactics they would be familiar with.

 

[Halasían]

I've always viewed the Dunlendings as something akin to the highlanders of our own history. Lightly-armed, and lightly-armoured troops. There is something slightly Celtic about the Hillmen, if only the fact of them being marginalized in their own lands, by their essentially anglo-saxon neighbours.

Thats a good analogy really. I think Sarumann used their hatred of the Rohirrim to his advantage and cared not for the outcome of the Dunlanding attackers. Good points mentioned here as far as the time element and Sarumanns reasoning.