The Lord of the Rings: Why Did the Elven Armies Not Help at Minas Tirith or the Black Gate?

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• The Elven Armies Went to War — But Not at Minas Tirith

• The Elves Lived a Great Distance From Gondor and Mordor

• The Elves Had Seen Too Much War in The Lord of the Rings

• The Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Black Gate were the last two major battles in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
• A few Elves were present at these conflicts, but the armies of the Elven realms were absent.
• The Elves faced several obstacles that prevented them from aiding the Gondorians and Rohirrim in The Return of the King.

The last two major battles in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings were the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, which ended the Siege of Minas Tirith, and the Battle of the Black Gate, also known as the Battle of the Morannon. The armies of Gondor and Rohan worked together to save Minas Tirith from the forces of Sauron and distract the Dark Lord long enough for Frodo to complete his quest of destroying the One Ring. In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King film, Legolas is the only Elf present at either of these battles. In the novel, Elrond’s sons Elladan and Elrohir participated as well, having traveled alongside the Rangers of the Grey Company on their way to Minas Tirith.

But in both the novel and the films, the armies of the Elven realms — Rivendell, Lothlórien, The Woodland Realm, and Lindon — were absent. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Black Gate were extremely important, as they finally brought an end to the War of the Ring. It was therefore in the best interests of all the Free Peoples of Middle-earth to ensure Sauron’s defeat in these conflicts. The Dwarven armies were unable to help because they were busy defending Dale in the north, but what of the Elves? They had previously shown a willingness to aid the Fellowship, and they were desperate to defeat Sauron, so why did they not help the Men of Gondor and Rohan at such a pivotal moment?

The Elven Armies Went to War — But Not at Minas Tirith

Three-way split image of Arwen, Galadriel, and Legolas in Lord of the Rings

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Battle

Combatants (Free Peoples of Middle-earth)

Combatants (Forces of Sauron)

Battle of the Pelennor Fields

Gondorians, Rohirrim, Dead Men of Dunharrow (film only), Grey Company (novel only), Three Hunters, Elrond’s Sons (novel only), Gandalf

Orcs, Easterlings, Variags (novel only), Haradrim, Nazgûl, Trolls, Mûmakil, Fell Beasts

Battle of the Black Gate

Gondorians, Rohirrim, Grey Company (novel only), Great Eagles, Three Hunters, Elrond’s Sons (novel only), Gandalf

Orcs, Easterlings (novel only), Haradrim (novel only), Nazgûl, Trolls, Fell Beasts

The main reason that the Elves did not help at Minas Tirith or the Black Gate was that the Elven realms were under attack at the same time. In the chapter “The Passing of the Grey Company” from The Return of the King, Gimli asks Legolas why he had not called on his own people for help. Legolas answered, “I do not think that any would come… They do not need to ride to war; war already marches on their own lands.” Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings provides a detailed timeline of the War of the Ring. It showed that the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Black Gate occurred on March 15 and March 25, respectively. Meanwhile, the Orcs of Dol Guldur assaulted Lothlórien on March 11, March 15, and March 22, and they did the same to the Woodland Realm on March 15. The Elves of Lothlórien and the Woodland realm could not have aided the Gondorians and Rohirrim without leaving their homes defenseless.

This was no coincidence. Sauron was a strategic mastermind, and he knew that the best way to take advantage of his superior numbers was to assault his enemies on all fronts. A stronger fighting force could have afforded to defend itself and aid its allies at the same time, but the Elven armies were weak by the time of The Lord of the Rings. Most Elves had already set sail for Valinor or were preparing to do so, so few Elven soldiers remained in Middle-earth. Elrond discussed this during the novel version of the Council of Elrond. An Elf named Galdor asked him if the One Ring would be safe in one of the Elven realms, and he replied that none of them had the power to fight Sauron. In the novel, the Elves had not participated in the Battle of Helm’s Deep from The Two Towers either; this was an invention of Jackson’s adaptation. Rivendell and Lindon were not under attack during The Return of the King, but there were other reasons that they could not lend aid.

The Elves Lived a Great Distance From Gondor and Mordor

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• Pelennor meant “Fenced Land” in the Elvish language of Sindarin.
• Morannon was the Sindarin name for the Black Gate.
• The Elves of Rivendell and Lindon had been instrumental in defeating the Witch-king of Angmar earlier in the Third Age.

Distance was another obstacle preventing the Elven armies from aiding at Minas Tirith and the Black Gate. Rohan was Gondor’s neighboring kingdom, and it still took the Rohirrim five days to arrive when riding as quickly as possible. Even the closest Elven realm, Lothlórien, was roughly twice as far away from Gondor as Rohan was. The Woodland Realm and Rivendell were even further away, and Lindon further still. Additionally, the armies of Rivendell and Lindon would have needed to cross the Misty Mountains, making the journey slow and perilous. The Battle of the Pelennor fields began as soon as the Rohirrim arrived and ended later that same day, so the Elves likely would have reached Minas Tirith long after the fighting was done.

This was an even greater problem for the Battle of the Black Gate, as it was a week’s journey from Minas Tirith to Mordor. Additionally, the decision to attack the Black Gate came from the Last Debate, an impromptu meeting following the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Aragorn deemed that the only chance of defeating Sauron was to draw his attention away from Mount Doom and hope that Frodo could destroy the One Ring. None of the Elves — aside from Legolas in the film or Elrond’s sons in the novel — even knew that the ultimate battle of The Lord of the Rings was about to take place. Most of the combatants at the Battle of the Black Gate were Gondorians and Rohirrim since they happened to be in Minas Tirith at the time.

The Elves Had Seen Too Much War in The Lord of the Rings

Legolas cupping his ear in front of Elrond and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings

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• At the Battle of the Black Gate, there were roughly 6000 soldiers fighting for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
• According to the chapter “The Black Gate Opens” from The Return of the King, the forces of Sauron outnumbered them “ten times and more than ten times.”
• The War of the Ring did not technically end until the Scouring of the Shire on November 3.

Even ignoring logistical issues such as the size of their armies and the distances they would need to travel, the Elves did not want to fight. Throughout Middle-earth’s history, the Elven race had seen more than its fair share of bloodshed. Though the Elves were victorious in the War of the Last Alliance, it came at a heavy cost. Countless Elves had died fighting Sauron the first time, and now that their numbers were rapidly declining from their departures to Valinor, they were especially hesitant to risk their lives in more battles. Death was even more traumatic for Elves than it was for the other races of Middle-earth since it did not happen to them naturally — Elves were immortal unless they met violent ends. If the Elves had been able to help at Minas Tirith and the Black Gate, they still might have chosen not to, just as Thranduil turned his back on Dale and Erebor in Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy.

The Elven armies’ absence from the Battle of the Black Gate was also thematically fitting. The Lord of the Rings was about the decline of magic in Middle-earth. Men ended the War of the Ring, and their victory ushered in an age of Men. As both Elrond and Galadriel said in Jackson’s film trilogy, “The time of the Elves is over.” Even with Sauron defeated, Gandalf and the Elves would soon depart for Valinor, and the hobbits would eventually go into hiding and fade into myth. The Fourth Age was a time of peace and prosperity, but it was also the start of Middle-earth becoming more mundane and growing ever closer to the modern real world. Like with so much of Tolkien’s writing, there was a bitter undertone to the seemingly happy ending. The end of The Lord of the Rings was the end of an era, mostly for better but in some ways for worse.

Fodo, Sam, Gollum, Aragorn, Gandalf, Eowyn, and Arwen on The Lord of the Rings Franchise Poster

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a series of epic fantasy adventure films and television series based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels. The films follow the adventures of humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and more in Middle-earth.

Created byJ.R.R. TolkienFirst FilmThe Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the RingLatest FilmThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five ArmiesUpcoming FilmsThe Lord of The Rings: The War of The RohirrimFirst TV ShowThe Lord of the Rings The Rings of PowerLatest TV ShowThe Lord of the Rings The Rings of PowerFirst Episode Air DateSeptember 1, 2022CastCharlie Vickers, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Morfydd Clark, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Dominic MonaghanCharacter(s)Sauron, GollumVideo Game(s)The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth, LEGO Lord of the Rings , Lord of the Rings Online, The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: War in the NorthGenreAction-Adventure, FantasyWhere to StreamMax, Hulu, Prime Video