How many 🧝elves were at Helm's deep?

[krash8765]

Well there was enough of them to man the deeping wall and there was also more elves on the ground behind the wall shooting arrows. Since there was 3 lines of elves lining the entire deeping wall and about 100 elves in a line i would guess about 750 elves total in Helms deep. Its kind of sad when there all slaughtered and that not one of them made it out alive. How many do u think were there?

 

[Feanorian]

750 seems like too great a number. Probably just a company or two, there were really not that many elves in Lothlorien and 750 would seem way too many too send, in the movie at least. We all know in the books there were no elves there..

 

[balrog]

the exact number would probably be a guess....after seeing the movie I would say around 100


however in the book no elves went to Helms Deep


that was an unexpected party of arrows!

 

[Aragorn21]

Yeah, I'd guess around 200, and that's as many orcs as they killed in the first volley! And the second! And the third!

Even though that wasn't in the books it was a really cool part of the movie.

 

[Aulë]

There was one elf at Helm's Deep in the book....

 

[The_Swordmaster]

My guess is about 100 because in the book Legolas says.

But even more I would give for a hundred good archers of Mirkwood.

I always thought that PJ more or less just granted Legolas' wish for the elven archers.

 

[Feanorian]

I always thought that PJ more or less just granted Legolas' wish for the elven archers.

although i think 750 was too many i think 100 is probably a little too low, no one knows for sure but there were alot of elves in the movie coming into Helm's Deep

 

[BlackCaptain]

Be it 100 or 750, there were 100 or 750 too many.

 

[ladyoflorien]

i would say 150 to 200 elves because 750 is a little steep.

 

[Feanorian]

Be it 100 or 750, there were 100 or 750 too many.

Your a gentlemen and a scholar, beautifully stated.

 

[BlackCaptain]

Really? haha.... thanks. I thought I might get some unwanted backlash from that actauly.

 

[Ariana Undomiel]

I couldn't tell you how many elves there were but I just now realized that the only elf who survived the whole battle was Legolas. That is terribly sad. My sister and I were talking the other night and we were wondering why Haldir's death seemed so horrible when we hardly got to know him at all. She came upon the revelation that the reason it was so terrible is because it was something that was never meant to be. We whitnessed the death of something beautiful that was supposed to live forever and didn't.

- Ariana

 

[krash8765]

there was definately more then 100 elves in Helms deep in the movie

 

[JeffF.]

Apparently more than a thousand

You can tell this by the length of the Deeping Wall, the fact that there were several ranks of defenders shown on it, there were several ranks of archers in reserve behind the wall, and the Rohirrim defenders are described as being a few hundred. From the scene the wall is many football fields in length (lets say 4), from the density of the defenders as shown by the close up of Gimli, Legolas & Aragorn you can see about a defender every yard (actually more but let's say one per yard). 1200 men on the wall, 1200 men behind it, several hundred in the Hornburg (whose defenders are very dense), the fact that the Rohirrim only number a few hundred leaves 1000-2000 defenders who are elves. In the scene where they march in I estimated around 1,000 but it was hard to determine since the scene was dark.

Even if we halve this (say the wall is only two football field in length we still have far more than a thousand defenders the leves must account for.

Just as an aside I point out that the movie wall was far higher then the 20 foot wall described in the book though it's thckness seems about right (wide enough for four men to walk abreast).

 

[Ariana Undomiel]

Apparently more than a thousand
You can tell this by the length of the Deeping Wall, the fact that there were several ranks of defenders shown on it, there were several ranks of archers in reserve behind the wall, and the Rohirrim defenders are described as being a few hundred. From the scene the wall is many football fields in length (lets say 4), from the density of the defenders as shown by the close up of Gimli, Legolas & Aragorn you can see about a defender every yard (actually more but let's say one per yard). 1200 men on the wall, 1200 men behind it, several hundred in the Hornburg (whose defenders are very dense), the fact that the Rohirrim only number a few hundred leaves 1000-2000 defenders who are elves. In the scene where they march in I estimated around 1,000 but it was hard to determine since the scene was dark.

Even if we halve this (say the wall is only two football field in length we still have far more than a thousand defenders the leves must account for.

Just as an aside I point out that the movie wall was far higher then the 20 foot wall described in the book though it's thckness seems about right (wide enough for four men to walk abreast).

Hmmmmmm ... that doesn't seem right to me though.

- Ariana

 

[JeffF.]

It Doesn't Seem 'Right' to Me Either

In the book there were 2,000 Rohirrim defenders. I don't see why that had to be changed nor do I see the sense in adding elves to the battle. A scene showing the invasion of Lothlorien and Legolas' homeland by the orcs and trolls of Dol Guldor would have shown the elvish contribution to the war.

I merely offered my observations as one who has some experience at judging numbers of soldiers in mass formations.

Why does it not seem 'right' to you Ariana?

 

[Legolas3363]

I cant remember where but i read on a site there was 300 elves but i cant find the site. ill try to find

 

[Gandalf White]

Originally posted by BlackCaptain
Be it 100 or 750, there were 100 or 750 too many.

Just a little nit-pick here. The correct way for you to state this opinion is "Be it 100 or 750, there were 99 or 749 too many. Just a note.

I really don't know how many elves were in the movie, and I could care less. The first time I saw it I was soo disturbed. Then when I went the second time, realizing it was a movie and separating it totally from the books I found it very cool, very cool indeed.

 

[sepdet]

Fanfiction!

Between the Elves and Aragorn's little tumble, all I could think was, "wow, this is really good fanfiction."

As fanfiction, it was utterly fabulous. I define fanfic as 1. Writing an original story in an existing world created by another author and/or 2. casting the existing story in a different light.

I rather enjoy good fanfic. And you can't beat a 3-hour feature film of that caliber! But as a dramatization of LOTR, I find myself reaching for the BBC radio play.


Back to the elves... over a thousand? That's what I thought, having been in medieval battle reenactments a lot. The Deeping Wall and the garth behind it were truly monumental in that movie: it had to be half a mile wide.

How can that many elves possibly all be dead?

And if they are, why isn't Aragorn falling over with guilt, and Legolas in a state of shellshock? The Legolas of the movie is just barely coming to grips with this "death" concept!

 

[Celebthôl]

The way i saw it was that there were 300 Elves and 300 Men/boys. Legolas even says it, "300 Vs 10,000"