The Best-Loved Son cycle

By:Isabeau
 February, 23 2006

Anything dealing with this cycle of stories can be discussed here: Andra and Boromir as a couple, the Denethor/Imrahil/Andrahar rivalry, the politics of Gondor in the last days of the Third Age.

Comment:
Nargil said:

The amount of foder required to support a large number of horses through a siege is incredible, a horse eats two hay nets full of hay a day (a hay-net is about the size of a beanbag) so that means you need a thousand beanbags of hay for every day you want all the Swan knights in Minas Tirith, it takes up a lot of room, plus all the hard feed like oats.

That's why I suggested that MT itself has only a little troop of cavalry because the food produced on the Pelennor Fields is required to feed the big city, and can't be easily spared for horses.

MT is the largest city, being the capital, so other cities like Dol Amroth, Pelargir, Lebennin etc. presumably have fewer people to feed with the arable land round about.

I'm supprised they didn't have more archers, the Ithilien company is small but highly effectiveand very usefull to shoot people who try and get over the walls, also in the books the Gondorian's didn't have any good catapults, there where none that could reach as far as the ones the ORCS built.

Archers and catapults were well within Denethor's skill to provide. It's not hard to teach a mant to shoot well enough to hit targets in the quantity that Sauron provoded and Amrothos could have created catapults, I bet Dol-Amroth is better fortified.

Especially as the Númenóreans were famous and feared for their great steel bows. One has to assume that the art of shooting with them has fallen into decline, or is at least not kept up to par to cope with the current threat.

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