Oliphaunts
Oliphaunts were animals similar to -- but larger than -- elephants. In Middle-earth they were called mûmakil (singular mûmak) by the Men of Gondor. The word "oliphaunt" was only used by Hobbits.
The animal
Oliphaunts lived during the Third Age in the southern land of Harad, and were notably used in the Siege of Gondor and the subsequent Battle of the Pelennor Fields on March 15th, 3018 of the Third Age. They are said to be (according to the Middle-Earth world) an ancestor of today's elephants although many times their size. They were big enough to carry structures similar to towers on their backs. These beasts had skin so thick it was almost impenetrable making them almost invulnerable to arrow shots. The only known way to kill an Oliphaunt was to shoot it in the eye, which typically meant standing in front of it as it charged the archer, and thus a very difficult task to perform. In the film version they are much, much bigger than today's elephants with 2 sets of big tusks and one set of tiny tusks.
They supposedly could be found in a great forest south of Far Harad.
The word
The word Oliphaunt is a variant spelling of the archaic word oliphant meaning "elephant", "ivory", "elephant-tusk", "musical horn made of an elephant tusk", or "a musical instrument resembling such a horn". It appears in Middle English as olifant or olifaunt, and was borrowed from Medieval French olifanz. The French word owes something to both Old High German olbenta "camel", and to Latin elephantus "elephant", a word of Greek origin. OHG olbenta is a word of old Germanic origin; cf. Gothic ulbandus also meaning "camel". But the form of the OHG and Gothic words suggests it is also a borrowing, perhaps indeed directly or indirectly from Greek elephas, though apparently with some confusion as to the animal the word referred to. The word survives as the surname Oliphant found throughout the English speaking world.
The most famous use of the oliphant is in The Song of Roland "The oliphant is set to Roland's Lips;" Roland fails to call for help at the Battle of Roncevaux in 778 until it is too late for him and his comrades. The oliphant is echoed in The Lord of the Rings by Boromir's horn and conterposed by Helm's horn and the horns of Buckland.
The poem
Oliphaunt is also the title of a short comic poem about the beast quoted by the hobbit Samwise Gamgee, based on traditional bestiary lore.
Oliphaunt
Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house,
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake,
As I tramp through the grass;
Trees crack as I pass.
With horns in my mouth
I walk in the South,
Flapping big ears.
Beyond count of years
I stump round and round,
Never lie on the ground,
Not even to die.
Oliphaunt am I,
Biggest of all,
Huge, old, and tall.
If ever you'd met me
You wouldn't forget me.
If you never do,
You won't think I'm true;
But old Oliphaunt am I,
And I never lie.
