Battle of Osgiliath
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| Battle of Osgiliath | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Gondor | Mordor | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Faramir | Sauron, Gothmog,[citation needed] the Witch-king | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| About 2000-3000 Gondorian soldiers,[citation needed] | ~60,000-200,000 Orcs,[citation needed] the nine Nazgûl | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| Over a third of Gondorian force | about 5,000-15,000[citation needed] | ||||||
| War of the Ring |
|---|
| 1st Fords of Isen - 2nd Fords of Isen - Isengard - Hornburg - Lothlórien - Mirkwood - Osgiliath - Pelennor Fields - Dale - Black Gate - Bywater |
The Battle of Osgiliath is a fictional battle of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King.
The battle was a prelude to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Prior to this, Sauron had regained all his military strength and was prepared to attack Middle-earth. He first planned to attack his most powerful enemy, the land of Gondor. But in order to destroy Gondor's capital, Minas Tirith, he first needed to capture Osgiliath, Gondor's former capital city, strategically positioned on the Anduin, the Great River. Fords across the river were located in Osgiliath (half of the city was located on each side of the river) that were the only path a large army could cross the Anduin for hundreds of miles up or downstream (the crossing was also possible at Cair Andros or Pelargir, but Osgiliath was the most direct). If captured, Sauron could freely move his main army across the river and to the primary target of his strategy in the war, Minas Tirith.
The battle to control the ruins of Osgiliath had actually been fought, on and off, for over a century since the fall of Ithilien to Mordor. Minas Tirith was surrounded by the Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the Pelennor Fields and meeting up with Osgiliath, where the Causeway Forts were built and garrisoned, though Osgiliath itself remained in ruins. This outwall fell into disrepair as the kingdom declined.
A renewed offensive by Mordor to take the city had begun in June 3018. The Eastern half of the city soon fell to the Orcs, but they were pushed back from the western bank by Boromir who was able to destroy the last standing bridge in the city which connected the two banks of the river. This temporarily halted Mordor's offensive for the time, with Gondor possesing the West of the city and Mordor the East. This lull in Mordor's offensive was probably due to the fact that the attack was mostly a probe of Gondor's defences rather than an all out attack. During this break in heavy fighting Boromir left Gondor to seek counsel at Rivendell about a dream he and his brother shared about Isildur's Bane; he would never return.
During this time, Faramir, Boromir's brother, led several Ranger attacks deep into Mordor-occupied Ithilien, ambushing enemy armies moving to the Black Gate; Frodo and Sam stumbled into one such attack.
When the Great Signal from Mordor went up and another answered from Minas Morgul, the War of the Ring proper began (although Isengard had been fighting before this and Sauron had been pursuing his other fronts). Thus the Battle of Osgiliath was the first battle of the war in a strict sense.
Before Mordor's assault, the Steward Denethor ordered Faramir to lead a force out of Minas Tirith to reinforce the garrison. Gandalf also went back and forth from Minas Tirith to Osgiliath, aiding Faramir and escorting the wounded. However, Mordor was prepared. Months beforehand, the Orcs in East Osgiliath had been secretly constructing massive numbers of boats and rafts, and swelled by reinforcements they swarmed across the River Anduin to the Gondorian positions on the other bank.
After long and heavy fighting the troops under Faramir's command were forced to retreat, first to the Causeway Forts on the Rammas Echor and then back to Minas Tirith itself. Faramir himself was badly wounded in the retreat, when a poisoned Southron arrow pierced him while he fought off a mounted champion of the South; more severe damage was done by the Black breath of the Nazgûl, but Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth led a cavalry charge ordered by Denethor to rescue the rearguard. In the meantime, the Orcs made makeshift repairs to several destroyed bridges. The main combined army of Mordor then arrived, formed from those that Frodo saw leaving Minas Morgul, but this was "but one and not the greatest of the hosts that Mordor now sent forth": a far greater host that had massed at the Black Gate joined them at Osgiliath, and the combined forces now entered the western bank of Osgiliath. More also came from the fords at Cair Andros, which was recently captured, but they would not reach Minas Tirith until later.
With Osgiliath now completely in the hands of Mordor, the vast army of Sauron marched from the city and surrounded Minas Tirith, beginning the siege of Gondor and leading directly into the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
[edit] In adaptations
For cinematic purposes, the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by Peter Jackson condensed the battle. The battle begins with thousands of Orcs travelling across the Anduin River in hundreds of boats under the command of Gothmog and the Nazgûl.
In a last ditch effort, the men of Gondor were armed and hid behind ancient pillars in an attempt to ambush the incoming orcs. This was but a futile gesture and despite Faramir's efforts the enemy flooded into the city. Madril, Faramir's second in command, was injured in the retreat and was killed by Gothmog shortly after.
As Faramir and his remaining men retreated over the Pelennor Fields, they were harried by the Nazgûl. Gandalf, riding Shadowfax, rode out to the retreating men and lifted his staff, emitting a bright light, which drove away the Nazgûl. Faramir later met with his father in disgrace. Denethor, who felt that the Western Bank must not be given up so easily, ordered Faramir and his company to retake it. This is proof of Denethor's slide into insanity, for the enemy had a secure position in Osgiliath and the charge was made against a very large number of orcs. In the book, Denethor did not order Faramir on a suicidal cavalry charge against Osgiliath, although Faramir did regard the order to go to help defend Osgiliath ill-advised and certain to result in death.
Against Gandalf's counsel, Faramir left for the charge with the remaining soldiers from Osgiliath (and perhaps the 500 they pulled out previously; "we pulled 500 men out of Osgiliath, if their city is attacked, we won't hold it." ). When in range of the orc archers, the Gondorian knights and rangers were slaughtered by arrows. The only known survivor was Faramir, who was hit in the area between his shoulder and pectoral armour. The fall of Osgiliath allowed the creation of bridges and fords, allowing huge numbers of orcs, siege towers, and catapults to cross in time to besiege Minas Tirith.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition documentary "Cameras In Middle-earth", Sean Bean mentions men as many as 20,000 men defending Osgiliath. This source is still unverified however.
