Siege of Minas Tirith

Gandalf the White
 10,000 Gondorian soldiers
 Heavy

**Note:** The contents of this article are based upon *Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy.*

The **Siege of Minas Tirith** was an attempt made by the Dark Lord Sauron to capture the city of Minas Tirith in the twilight days of the War of the Ring . As the capital of Sauron's long time enemy, Gondor, the city’s fall would have been a devastating blow to the morale of Sauron's enemies.

Led by Gothmog and the Witch King of Angmar, the siege lasted several days. The Gondorian defenders, led by Gandalf the White, put up a fierce defense, but were slowly driven back. The arrival of King Theoden and his 6000 Rohirrim cavalry took some pressure off of the city, leading to the concurrent Battle of Pelennor Fields. The siege was ultimately lifted by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, who brought 3000 additional reinforcements in the form of the Spirits of the Dead, who massacred the majority of Sauron's forces.

## Prelude to the Battle

Following the Siege of Helm's Deep and the defeat of Saruman, Sauron became aware that Aragorn, son of Arathorn, was willing to fight and stop the Dark Lord. After Gandalf and Pippin Took arrived at Minas Tirith they immediately met with the steward Lord Denethor, the father of Boromir and Faramir. Telling him of the danger to come, Gandalf urged Denethor to light the beacons of Gondor and call for aid. Denethor however, refused to do anything because he was aware of Aragorn's existence and had no desire to relinquish the throne to its rightful King.

Despite Denethor's refusal, Gandalf knew that Sauron would not sit idly for much longer. The Dark Lords forces were assembled and ready to march. Sure enough, later that very night Sauron ordered Angmar to begin the assault. Thus, the Witch King led a vast army of Orcs, Trolls and other evils out of the Minas Morgul towards Gondor.

Pippin successfully managed to light the beacons of Gondor in order for Rohan to get the message and provide aid. During these events the armies of Mordor defeated the Gondorian garrison at Osgiliath, forcing them to retreat. Upon the orders of Denethor, his younger son, Faramir crossed the Pelennor with a small force, in an attempt to drive the Orcs out of Osgiliath. Unfortunately, with the exception of Faramir, the entire unit was slain under a hail of arrows. Faramir was dragged back to Minas Tirith by his horse, wounded but alive. With nothing to obstruct them anymore, the Witch King, told his field Commander, Gothmog to unleash the full might of Sauron's army upon the city. Vowing to deal with Gandalf personally, the Lord of the Nazgul also ordered told his lieutenant to leave no survivors.

## The Siege of Minas Tirith

### The Battle Begins

The Siege of Minas Tirith officially began once a set of ominous dark clouds blanketed the city. This unnatural weather was caused by Sauron himself, since sunlight weakened his Orcs. With nobody left to oppose them, the Dark Lords massive army of 200,000 Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Trolls, Wargs and Easterlings assembled into battle formation then crossed the Pelennor Fields unopposed. At Gothmog's command, the Orcs first act was to the launch the severed heads of the those slain at Osgiliath into the city, in an effort to demoralise their enemies. Once this was done, the assault began in earnest, with the Mordors catapults hurling boulders into the city, whilst the numerous siege towers slowly advanced towards the cities perimeter walls.

As the panic and destruction began, Lord Denethor, having just learnt of his sons fate and mistakenly believing him to be dead, stood upon the top most level of the besiged city. There he saw the full might of the Mordor army with his own eyes. Overcome with despair and madness, Denethor believed that all hope was lost and that Rohan had deserted Gondor. In his grief, the Steward angrily yelled that all soldiers of the garrison should flee from the mounting onslaught. This act of cowardice disgusted Gandalf, who with several butts from his staff rendered the inept guardian of the city unconscious and took command for himself.

Riding through the city astride his mighty steed Shadowfax, Gandalf called all of the retreating soldiers back to their posts. Such was the power of Gandalf's voice and the respect he commanded that the soldiers who had previously been fleeing turned about. Within moments, Minas Tirith's garrison stood tall and proud once more. With the men in order again, Gandalf headed to the front line, telling the men under his command, it was time to retaliate.

Within minutes, the Gondorians mobilised their own trebuchets. Using boulders and rubble from the city, they launched their own projectiles towards the enemy. Many Orcs were crushed in the bombardment, along with a number of siege towers and enemy catapults. Unfortunately though, these casualties were nothing more than a minor inconvenience to the Forces of Darkness.

For a short while, a catapult duel ensued crushing troops on both sides. The stalemate was broken however, when the Witch King led the Nazgul into battle atop their massive fell-beasts. Descending from the sky unopposed, the Ringwriaths proceeded to smash many of the Gondorian trebuchets, whilst at the same time using their beasts to crush and hurl numerous men to their deaths. Their unearthly shrieks sowed further despair amongst the garrison. Despite these setbacks however, the soldiers of Gondor refused to submit.

### The City Breached

Whilst all of this was happening, the Mordor siege towers continued to advanced upon the city. As they drew ominously closer to the wall, Gondorian archers launched a massive volley of arrows at the structures in a bid to cripple them or slay the creatures they were carrying. This had minimal effect and when Gandalf saw what they were doing, he told the soldiers to redirect their fire at the Trolls pushing the towers. This had a much more devestating effect, but unfortunately, some of the towers were close enough for the dying beasts to push them against the wall.

With the towers in position, the Orcs now had access to the wall. Dropping latches onto the wall, the Orcs inside engaged the garrison, whilst the rest of the army surged forwards to join the melee. As more and more towers affixed themselves to the wall, a second detachment carried a battering ram to the cities main gate, where they attempted to knock it down and breach it. However, the assault did not go the way that Gothmog was expecting. Despite the Orcs numbers, Gandalf and the men atop the wall put up a fierce resistance, managing to keep the Orcs in check. Meanwhile the archers at the gate, were able to slaughter the advancing Orcs, forcing them to pull back. As night fell, the Orcs had not made any major progress.

However, that would all change when Gothmog, after being told that the battering ram could not breech the gate, ordered that Grond, the Wolf's Head battering ram be brought up. It took, but eventually, the mighty battering-ram stood before the great gate and began to batter it. With no way to counter the giant ram, Gandalf, knowing that the city was about to be breached led a large number of soldiers to the gate. As the group assembled into battle formation, Gandalf did his best to keep their nerves in check, telling them to be prepared for anything.

Eventually, Grond, broke the gate open, allowing the Forces of Mordor into the city. First to enter, where a group of heavily armored Trolls, who smashed through the Gondorian vanguard. Moments later, an endless tide of Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Easterlings and Warg Riders surged forwards. Gandalf and the men under his command put a fierce struggle, but in the end their enemies numbers were simply to great and they began to retreat.

### The Turning of the Tide and The Return of the King

As the sun rose over the horizon, all hope for Gondor seemed lost. Remembering his instructions, Gothmog ordered the entire army to advance into the city. The garrison and innocent civilians alike were being slaughtered in droves, and it appeared as though the city was about to be overrun. It was at this moment however, when all hope seemed lost, that the blaring of warhorns announced the arrival of a new contingent. With the sun behind them, King Théoden of Rohan arrived with an army of 7,000 mounted Rohirrim.

Seeing their allies in distress, Théoden gave a final speech before leading his men in a charge that broke the Army of Mordor. This began the Battle of Pelennor Fields and took some of the pressure off of the city. Unfortunately however, large numbers of Sauron's followers had breached the perimeter and whilst Théoden's arrival distracted the majority of Sauron's forces, there was little they could do to stop those already inside. As the arrival of the Haradrium and their Oliphaunts, swung the scales back in Mordor's favor, the city garrison retreated further into their city, preparing to make one final stand. It was during this time that Gandalf assured Pippin that even if they fell here, death would not be the end for them.

Despite this, defeat for the defenders of Gondor now seemed inevitable. Despite the Free People's continued resilance and bravery, Sauron's forces still held the advantage in terms of numbers and war beasts that the men of Gondor and Rohan simply could not counter. As such, Sauron's previously routed army rallied and reattacked. In the turmoil, King Théoden was mortally wounded by the Witch King of Angmar. However, the King was saved by his niece, Eowyn, who with a bit of help from the hobbit Merriadoc Brandybuck, managed to slay the Lord of the Nazgul, cutting off the head of the Mordor Army.

It was around this time that a series of ships pulled into the harbor at the Anduin across from the city. These were the vessels of the Corsairs of Umbar, evil men in the employment of Sauron, who had come to reinforce the Forces of Darkness. However instead of the Corsairs, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli of the Fellowship of the Ring leapt from the vessels to the initial confusion of the Orc greeting party. The Orcs assumed that the three warriors would be easy prey, but their delight quickly turned into horror, when they saw what the elf, man anddwarf had brought with them. From behind the King of Gondor emerged the ghost army of the dead, a group of cursed humans from the Second Age, who sought to fulfil their ancient oath of aiding Gondor so that they might be allowed to depart the land of the living in peace.

The Spirits of the dead's arrival turned the tide of the battle in favor of the alliance. With inhumane speed, the Army of the Dead swept away everything that lay before it. Sauron's Orcs, Uruk-hai, Trolls and fallen men tried to put up a resistance, but were quickly overwhelmed and cut down. Eventually, realising that they simply could not defeat this new menace, the Forces of Darkness' routed, but few of them made it off of the battlefield alive. At the same time, the Spirits of the dead entered the city itself and cleansed it of any remaining Orcs. Thus the Siege of Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields ended simultaneously in a costly victory for the Free People.

## Aftermath

Once the battle had concluded, Aragorn fulfilled his promise and set the Spirits of the dead free from their curse. Both sides sustained heavy casualties during the battle and it was clear that Minas Tirith could not withstand another assault. Forunately, the free people were granted some respite in the immediate aftermath, as Sauron's surviving forces withdrew from Gondor and retreated back to Mordor. It is not known how many of Sauron's followers survived this battle, but it is heavily implied that with the exception of the eight remaining Nazgul and their fellbeasts, the army he sent to conquer Gondor was completely destroyed. Two of Sauron's major allies, the Easterlings and the Haradrium would play no further part in the War of the Ring following the Siege of Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Pelennor Field's.

After tending to the wounded, Aragorn held a council of war with Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and Eomer the New King of Rohan. Everybody present knew about Frodo's mission to destroy the One Ring and that the fate of Middle Earth would depend upon the choices they made here. Gandalf was unable to determine Frodo's exact location, which meant he had probably entered enemy territory. Although Aragorn stated that they would know if Sauron had acquired the ring, Gandalf assured them that it was only a matter of time. The Siege of Minas Tirith had been an inconvenient defeat for Sauron, but the Dark Lord still had plenty of followers left. Even now his forces were rallying and regrouping within the land of evil. Thus, the Dark Lords army stood between Frodo and his objective at Mount Doom.

Realising that they needed to divert Sauron's attention, Aragorn proposed that they take the fight to Sauron's domain. Using a Palantir, the King of Gondor deliberately contacted Sauron, making the Dark Lord think that he had the Ring of Power and was now coming to Mordor to challenge the Dark Lord for his mantle. With the ruse sown, Aragorn led the weary survivors of the Siege of Minas Tirith towards the final engagement in the War of the Ring; at the Battle of the Black Gate.