Talk:Battle of Tumhalad
As a new user, thought I should at least bring it up in discussion before making edits, but the "estimation" that Nargothrond had around 30,000 warriors is not only high, it's very likely higher than the number of Noldor warriors in all the first age. Personally, I think it should be removed.
My reasoning goes as follows. We know that Turgon has 10,000 warriors with him at Nirneath Arnoediad.(Chapter 20, Of the Fifth Battle. ) We also know that the "third part" I.e. 1/3 of the Noldor of Fingolfin's following went to settle in Gondolin (Chapter 15, Of the Noldor in Beleriand), and that furthermore, the Noldor were a minority, since there was "and a yet greater host of the Sindar".
Now, here's where I'm making 2 assumptions, but I think they're both good ones: Firstly, that Turgon would have sent most if not all of his forces to the fifth battle. Why wouldn't he? This is the big chance to beat Morgoth, as far as he knows, and besides, Gondolin is hidden and secure, and thus doesn't need a big garrison in case of surprise attack.
The second assumption is that the armed forces of Gondolin were more or less in line with the overall population. If the Noldor were a minority in the city, they'd also be a minority of the army. We don't see any reluctance of the Sindar to get stuck in, and there's no immediately clear reason why some of them wouldn't take up arms in service of their king. Even if that's not the case, being the ruling and tougher breed of Elf, you'd think it would be far more likely that Gondolin's army would be disproportionately Noldor, and not disproportionately Sindar.
But in any event, even if every single one of those 10,000 troops was a Noldor, that represents a third of Fingolfin's following, which means you can't really have more than 20,000 other Noldor troops to divide between Dorthonion, Hithlum, and Nargothrond, nevermind 30,000 in Nargothrond alone. And if a big chunk of Gondolin's army is Sindar, the number drops precipitously.
So can we axe the numbers? Or at least tone them down to something more reasonable, a few thousand troops for Nargothrond tops. —Unsigned comment by Corgatha (talk • contribs).
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