TheBattle of Helm's Deep, also called theBattle of the Hornburg, is a fictional battle inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings that saw the total destruction of the forces of theWizardSaruman by the army ofRohan, assisted by a forest of tree-likeHuorns.
Helm's Deep was a valley in the north-westernWhite Mountains ofMiddle-earth. Helm's Deep, with its fortress the Hornburg, becomes the refuge of some of the army of Rohan, the Rohirrim, under KingThéoden, from assault by the forces of Saruman. Although Théoden says that "the Hornburg has never fallen to assault," in the battle a massive army ofUruk-hai and Dunlendings sent by Saruman almost overwhelms the defences. Saruman'sOrcs breach the fortress wall that blocks the valley by setting off an explosion in aculvert;Aragorn names it "Saruman's devilry" and "the fire ofOrthanc"; the criticTom Shippey calls it "a kind of gunpowder".[2] The defenders hold out in the fortress until dawn, when Théoden and Aragorn lead acavalry charge that drives the Orcs from the fortress. They are surprised to see the valley to the enemy's rear blocked by a forest of tree-like Huorns that have walked fromFangorn in the night. On the side of the valley are relieving forces assembled byGandalf and Erkenbrand, a Rohirrim leader. These attack, driving the Orcs into the angry Huorn forest, from which the Orcs never emerge; the Huorns bury the Orcs' bodies in an earthen mound known as "Death's Down".
Tolkien based Helm's Deep on England'sCheddar Gorge, and the Glittering Caves of Aglarond on the cave complex that he had visited there. The army of Rohan was according to Tolkien armed and equipped much like that of the armies depicted in theBayeux Tapestry. He noted further that his walking forest was partly a response toShakespeare'sMacbeth, which tells of the coming of "GreatBirnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill". Scholars have likened the way Aragorn, Éomer, and Gimli heroically hold off the army of Orcs toHoratius Cocles's heroic defence of a bridge ofancient Rome.
Peter Jackson's 2002filmThe Two Towers makes the battle dramatic, following Tolkien's account quite closely, but with changes to the forces involved: the defenders include a group ofElf-warriors sent byElrond; the attackers include neither men norwargs (battle-wolves).
Helm's Deep is based on theCheddar Gorge, alimestone gorge 400 ft (120 m) deep in theMendip Hills, with a large cave complex that Tolkien visited on his honeymoon in 1916 and revisited in 1940, and which he acknowledged as the origin of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond at the head of Helm's Deep, behind the fortress.[T 1][1]
Helm's Deep is properly the narrow gorge or ravine[T 2][T 3] at the head of a larger valley (the Deeping-coomb), but the name is also used for the fortifications at the mouth of the gorge and the larger valley below.[T 4][T 5][T 6] The gorge, which wound deep into theWhite Mountains at the feet of the Thrihyrne mountain, led into the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, an extensive series of spectacularspeleothems. InThe Lord of the Rings, theDwarfGimli, who like all dwarves is well versed in geology, is horrified that the caves are used only as a refuge, describing them lyrically as:
immeasurable halls, filled with everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair asKheled-zâram in the starlight. […] when torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then […] gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of QueenGaladriel. There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose […] fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass; cities such as the mind ofDurin could scarce have imagined in his sleep, stretch on through avenues and pillared courts, or into the dark recesses where no light can come.[T 7]
The mouth of the gorge, Helm's Gate, was closed by the battlemented Deeping Wall, 20 ft (6.1 m) tall, and wide enough for four men to stand abreast, with aculvert for the Deeping-stream which flowed down the valley. At one end of the wall the Hornburg castle stood on a spur of the mountain; a long stair led to its rear gate, and a long causeway led down forwards from its main gate. About two furlongs (400 metres) down from the gate was an outer trench and rampart, Helm's Dike, built right across the Deeping-coomb. Tolkien drew detailed sketches of the fortifications.[3]
The valley was named after King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan, when he and his people sought refuge from the invadingDunlendings underWulf during the winter ofT.A. 2758–2759.[T 3]
Théoden had been released by the WizardGandalf from the influence ofGríma Wormtongue, his malevolent adviser and Saruman's spy. He then sets out to the Fords of Isen, where his marshal Erkenbrand was fighting Saruman's forces. However, Théoden found out that his forces had been scattered. Gandalf advised him to take refuge in the Hornburg fortress of Helm's Deep. Gandalf then left on an unexplained errand. Théoden's army went to the area, where local people were commanded by a captain called Gamling the Old. Many of the men there were very old or young. The women and children of Théoden's capitalEdoras were safe inDunharrow, led by the King's nieceÉowyn.[T 2]
The garrison of Helm's Deep consisted of some 1,000 men, but around 1,000 more defenders had arrived from across Rohan by the time of the battle.[4] The enemy,Saruman's army, consisted of at least 10,000 Orcs and men, most marching fromIsengard to Helm's Deep, and others heading to the Fords of Isen.[T 2][T 8] An additional force ofMen of Dunland joined the enemy.[T 2]
The forces of Saruman, common Orcs, large Uruk-hai, "half-orcs and goblin-men", and Dunlendings (Men of Dunland), arrived at Helm's Deep on a stormy night. They stormed the first defence, Helm's Dike, forcing the defenders to fall back to the fortress. They attempted to break down the gate with abattering ram, but a sortie led byAragorn andÉomer briefly scattered the attackers.[T 2]
The Orcs and Dunlendings raised ladders to scale the wall, but were held back by the Men of Rohan atop the wall. Orcs crept into the culvert and made a breach in the wall using a "blasting-fire" from Orthanc, perhaps "a kind ofgunpowder";[2] Saruman's army rushed in. Some defenders retreated to the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, while others retreated to the Hornburg.[T 2]
Saruman's forces broke through the Hornburg gate just before dawn. At this moment, Helm's horn was sounded, and Théoden and Aragorn rode out, followed by all the Rohirrim left inside. They cut their way through the Orcs and drove them back from the fortress walls to Helm's Dike.[T 2]
As day dawned, both armies saw that a forest of angry, tree-likeHuorns now filled the valley, trapping Saruman's army. Above them, Gandalf appeared onShadowfax, with Erkenbrand and a thousand footsoldiers who had escaped from the Fords of Isen. They charged into the fray. The Dunlendings dropped their weapons, while the Orcs fled into the Huorn forest and were destroyed.[T 2]
After the battle, the Dunlendings were given amnesty by Erkenbrand and allowed to return home (much to their surprise, since Saruman had told them that the men of Rohan would burn all survivors alive). The Rohirrim required that all hostilities cease, and that the Dunlendings retreat behind theRiver Isen again and never recross while bearing arms. Before they were freed, though, the Dunlending captives were put to work in repairing the fortress.[T 2]
The bodies of the Orcs that had entered the forest of Huorns were never seen again; the Huorns had buried them in an earthen mound known as "Death's Down".[T 2]
Among the Rohirrim dead was Háma, captain of Théoden's personal guard and doorward ofhis hall; the Orcs had hewn his corpse, an atrocity that Théoden recalled during his later parley with Saruman. Gimli had been wounded, but had killed 42 Orcs to Legolas's 41.[T 2]
In Book III, ch. 5 ofThe Two Towers, Helm is described only as a "hero of old wars"; Tolkien did not envision him as a king when he wrote that chapter.[T 9]
Tolkien had not yet envisioned Helm's Deep in his first sketch for the decisive battle between Rohan and the forces of Saruman. In an outline published inThe Treason of Isengard as “The Story Foreseen from Fangorn," the Rohirrim rode west at Gandalf's urging, as in the published text, but met the army of Saruman on the open plain. An indecisive battle ensued, after which the Rohirrim camped for the night, and woke to see the enemy surrounded and destroyed by a wood that had appeared overnight.[T 10]
After the publication ofThe Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote about the history ofRohan, in writings now collected by his son Christopher inUnfinished Tales. These state that the fortresses of Aglarond andAngrenost (renamed Isengard by the Rohirrim) were built byGondor to guard the shoulders of theGap of Rohan. Like Angrenost to the north, it was initially well guarded, but as the population ofCalenardhon dwindled it was not maintained and was left to a hereditary small guard who intermarried withDunlendings. When Cirion,Steward of Gondor, gave Calenardhon to theÉothéod, Aglarond was transferred into the care of the Rohirrim, who named itSúthburg ("South-fortress" in Old English). The Gondorian guard was merged with that of Isengard. Guard duty of the Fords was initially shared between Gondor and Rohan, but later maintained only by the Rohirrim.[T 11]
In a 1958 letter to Rhona Beare, one of a group of enthusiasts, Tolkien stated that the Rohirrim "were not 'Mediaeval' in our sense" (as theThird Age was meant to be thousands of years earlier) but that all the same "the styles of theBayeux Tapestry (made in England) fit them well enough", explaining that the soldiers in the tapestry are wearingchain-mail.[T 12]
Tolkien noted in a letter that he had created walking tree-creatures partly in response to his "bitter disappointment and disgust from schooldays with the shabby use made inShakespeare'sMacbeth of the coming of 'GreatBirnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill': I longed to devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war".[T 13] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey calls it a "shock" that the battle is decided by having a forest of Huorns destroy Saruman's army of Orcs.[5]
Charles Oughton likens the Battle of Helm's Deep toLivy's account ofHoratius Cocles's heroic defence of Rome'sPons Sublicius bridge. The heroes Aragorn,Éomer, andGimli hold off the army of Orcs; Horatius holds off the army ofEtruscans at the bridge. Oughton finds multiple matches between the two accounts. Several of these are not present inThomas Babington Macaulay's poem "Horatius" which retells Livy's tale, though Oughton suggests that Tolkien did make additional use of Macaulay for some details.[6]
InPeter Jackson's 2002 filmThe Two Towers thekeep was built into the mountainside and resembles aWorld War Ibunker, in keeping with Tolkien's history as a soldier in that war. The entrance to the Glittering Caves of Aglarond is within the Hornburg itself, rather than at the top of the deep behind the Deeping Wall as in the book. Further, theUruk-hai assault the main gateway in atestudo, or locked-shields style formation, and the 'blasting fire' is depicted as gunpowder.[7][8] The battle was filmed mainly at night, in frequent heavy natural rain or when necessary with artificial rain on the actors, for more than three months.[9]
The Helm's Deep set used somecomputer-generated imagery; some parts were constructed as full size sets; some shots used a 1/4 scale physical model, while more distant shots used a 1/85 scale model. In the final battle scene,Weta's "Massive" crowd simulation software and "Grunt" rendering software were used, with thousands of Uruk-hai modelled using Alias/Wavefront's "Maya" software.[10] It has been described as one of the greatest battle scenes in film, combining "technical mastery, sweeping spectacle and tonal balance".[9][11] In the film, 10,000 of Saruman's Uruk-hai (with no Orcs of other races, Dunlendings orwargs to accompany them) lay siege to the fortress, defended by around 300 Rohirrim. Soon after, however, a large group of theElves ofLothlórien join the defences, sent byElrond, at Galadriel's prompting. The defenders suffer heavy losses, but hold out until dawn, when Gandalf arrives with 2,000 riders led by Éomer, who turn the tide of the battle and rout Saruman's forces.[12] In the original script of the film, Elrond andArwen had gone to see Galadriel in person, and it was Arwen who led the Elves to fight alongside the Rohan defenders. Jackson rejected Arwen's involvement, revising her character from a "warrior princess" to a role closer to that of the book, but kept the Elves in the battle. Huorns appear only in additional scenes in the Extended Edition, later released on DVD.[13]
The 2013 expansion toThe Lord of the Rings Online entitledHelm's Deep depicts the fortress of Helm's Deep as well as the surrounding area of Western Rohan, the Battle of Helm's Deep featuring prominently.[14]
