Posted: September 16, 1999 at 15:28:49: by MW
hmmm. Well the example (though more in perception perhaps then specific evidence . though that can go both ways) in RotK is the mustering of forces in MT before the battle. You see groups of troops marching in from the "provinces" of Gondor. These troops are NOT uniform in training, equipment or even lineage. That imo infers militia. At the very least it reafirms my point that these are not professional Gondor(ian) troops. Now trying to get an accurate picture myself we see that Aragorn leaves MT with a force approximating 7 thousand (horse and foot).
He also leaves Gondor in better defense then before he arrived. (keep in mind that he has also been reinforced by a force of 4 thousand from Pelargir lead by Angbor by the time they march). Theodin brought less then 6 thousand spears (5 and Fifty Hundreds) to contribute to those totals above as well. Im sorry but I dont see armies numbering 40 plus thousand. Aragorn marches with a scant 7 thousand troops that are heavily reinforced by other regions. If Gondor had an army even close to "Estimation of the size of Gondorian armed forces is difficult
but I would imagine it was between 40,000 and 50,000" (M.Martinez) they would surely be able to muster more then 7 thousand troops (REINFORCED) to march on Mordor. Now I realize that the army was to serve as a diversion for the ring bearers but they would also muster as many troops as they could spare for such an errand they werent suicidal just desperate. One other thing thats of interest is Tolkiens reference to the fact that this army (in total) would approximate the vangaurd of the last army to march on Mordor. That should give some of us a reference to guess the size of that army in the "golden age". I wander a bit here but all of the above contributes I should think to this discussion and are at the least interesting points.
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