I think the humans, elves, and dwarves were not only weaker/less armed/less trained at the time of the movies vs the initial fight, but also less united/allied
Especially considering how long some of the races live. Imagine how specialized in a specific field of science an elf could be when it can study a subject for hundreds of years.
No, not really. The trope is called "medieval stasis" (in TVT terms anyway) and is fairly common in high fantasy, though. The setting is supposed to be swords and horses, with notes of "technology bad" - which makes sense because what passes for tech in Middle Earth is mostly Saruman fucking around with orcs and that sort of thing.
As for weakening, a lot of that had to do with other things than just technological stagnation.
Middle Earth’s magic is in decay by the third age. The elves are literally leaving it, and there are way less of them. Men also only live to ~80 instead of living for hundreds of years like they did in Numenor. Middle Earth eventually becomes a world like ours.
Furthermore men were no longer as “pure” in the 2nd/3rd age legends. The numenorians initially lived hundreds of years, were stonger had a more advanced civ. Etc. It all crumbled and then even those that survived and rebuilt mixed with humans that resulted in shorter lifespans, etc. By the movies it was basically the dark ages.
iirc Frodo sold Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses for a not great price and (fake) moves to a sketchier neighborhood where you had to lock your doors lol.
So Frodo being priced out of his childhood home isn’t far off.
To be fair that was because he wasn’t sure he was coming back from his journey, not because he couldn’t have gotten a good deal if he haggled. He also got it back for free after Saruman was killed, so pretty good deal in the end anyways.
Decay and waning are the major themes of Tolkien’s Legendarium. Magic runs out, great creations cannot be repeated, there is no progress and effort once spent cannot be regained.
The war was so hard on elves that the entire race was in decline, and most of them had already fled Middle Earth for Valinor by the time of the movies. At least 2 of the greatest dwarven cities were destroyed…1 by a dragon and one by a Balrog. Humanity was divided, and the greatest human city had been without a legitimate ruler for centuries. On top of all that, the most powerful wizard, who should have been a bulwark against Saurons return, was a double-agent and had likely been undermining the other races for decades or longer. Middle Earth was basically the remains of the Roman Empire during the Dark Ages
Thanks for the detailed description. The comparison is a bit odd though, from the roman empire to today its only 2000 years and I think some of the smallest nations could easily crush the roman empire today. I cant even imagine what will be in another 3000 years. But as others have pointed out, there seems to be no technological advancement in Middle Earth so I guess thats a major factor.
You don’t even need 5000 years. Colonial forces regularly beat 10:1 odds against natives, and they very obviously lived at the same time. The battle of Ulundi saw the british win with 20 deaths, against a force of 15.000 Zulu warriors. Even the famous British defeat at Islandlwana saw the Zulu impi suffer tripple the British casualties.
The war was so hard on elves that the entire race was in decline
That’s the whole thing for the elves, and really the entire LOTR saga. Everything declines, fades, weakens and runs down. But the elves especially never “grow” or improve.
What a shit name for a war tbh. “Yo guys this was fun, but this is the last time we’re getting together” - elves probably. Or maybe they meant last as in “previous”, but that’s just asking for it to get outdated.
Yeah, aside from the numerous armies lost, includijg dwarves and elves, ~1000 years of fighting, it took two literal kings dying to defeat him, Gil-galad and Elendil. But, Sauron was also defated. In the end, Isildur showed up and chopped off his finger and took the ring.
The last alliance spend years preparing and forging elven weapons for the human/elf army, then they marched south along the Anduin and kicked major ass in the Battle of Dagorlad. The elves almost ruined it, because the sindarin didn’t want to listen to the Noldorin Gil-galad, so they charged and got their faces punched in in the Dead Marshes (well, that’s what they called em after the battle anyway). A WHOLE lot more named characters died.
The Last Alliance breached the black gate, “simply” marched into Mordor, and starting laying siege to Barad-dur for seven whole years. Anarion, son of Elendil and brother of Isildur, gets crushed under a rock at some point. Sauron eventually comes out and fights Gil-Galad. Elendil, Cirdan and Elrond join in and they fight Sauron at full power. Sauron turns in Gil-galad into a pointy-eared torch and smashes Elendil to bits. But Sauron is fought down too, and only THEN does Isildur cut off the ring, banishing his spirit once again. Isildur basically kills him while he’s down, not in the middle of the fight and definitely not in the middle of the battle of Dagorlad. There is also no dramatic scene at Mount Doom in the books, but both Elrond and Cirdan have a talk with Isildur about destroying the ring. Isildur takes it as payment for the death of his brother and father, and dies just two years later.
So the war of the last alliance killed the elven kings of Greenwood and Lothlorion (meaning Thranduil becomes king). Elendil, king of the Dunedain, dies and is succeeded by Isildur. There is no more king of Noldor, since Gil-galad didn’t have kids.
Okay, thanks for this, so it would have been very difficult to cut off his finger unless he had already been subdued, a lucky swipe in the middle of the battle wouldn’t have done it?
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