How Many Armies Did Arnor Have?

Q: How Many Armies Did Arnor Have?

ANSWER: People ask about Gondor’s armies but I don’t recall anyone ever asking about Arnor’s armies. Technically, Gondorian and Arnorian armies would not have been organized like modern 20th century armies with regional commands. There would have been royal forces with specific divisions of responsibility and possibly semi-autonomous regional forces, not necessarily organized according to feudal customs as many people assume.

Last year I addressed the question of how many armies Gondor fielded. In that article I wrote:

As with all true historical nations its military forces would have undergone changes in size and organization through the centuries in order to address the needs of the various times. The structure and size of Gondor’s forces should thus be seen as fluid throughout the Third Age.

This would be equally true of Arnor, although its history was much shorter than Gondor’s.

Arnor’s history can be divided into three phases:

1. The High Kings Period (Second Age year 3320 to Third Age year 861)
2. The Three Realms Period (Third Age year 861 to 1356)
3. The Reconstituted Arnor Period (Third Age year 1356 to 1974)

The High Kings Period began with Elendil, who founded Arnor with assistance from Gil-galad the year after Numenor was destroyed and the world made round. Elendil was acknowledged High King of the Dunedain-in-Exile and therefore was regarded as the utmost regal authority in Gondor. There is no direct reference to an Arnorian military prior to the onset of war with Sauron, but Elendil did build the tower of Amon Sûl, where he placed the most important of his three palantíri. Amon Sûl was a military post by all accounts.

Also, Arnor and Gondor jointly held and defended the crossings at Tharbad. We don’t know when those garrisons were put in place but it seems clear they were deemed necessary from early on because of the history of animosity between the Dunedain and the Gwathuirim of Enedwaith.

It seems unlikely Elendil would have been without at least some guards in his capitol city of Annúminas so let us assume there was a garrison there.

And then there was Fornost Erain. When was that city built? Tolkien doesn’t say but he seems to imply that it predates the reign of Amlaith, first king of Arthedain (who ruled from Fornost). Hence, we can guess that Elendil had a garrison at Fornost, presumably to defend Arnor against the wild men of northeastern Eriador.

After the war the larger part of Arnor’s surviving army marched northward through Calenardhon and Enedwaith to Tharbad. Presumably the majority of those soldiers would have been discharged from service. Valandil eventually took up his rule in Annúminas so presumably during his reign there would have been garrisons of various sizes at Annúminas (a royal guard), Fornost Erain (a frontier garrison), Amon Sûl (probably no more than a handful of wardens and attendants), and Tharbad. Strategically it might also have made sense to station some troops in or near the Trollshaws as well as on the southern Baranduin to guard against wild men — but there are no mentions of such posts in any of the published Tolkien texts.

The Three Realms Period began with the division of Arnor between Amlaith of Fornost and his two younger brothers (call them Rhûnen-Tôr and Harnen-Tôr). Each of the brothers would presumably have commanded some armed forces.

We know from the chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, “Fog on the Barrow-downs”, that there were fortifications in the northern Emyn Beraid at some point. Elendil probably had no need for such fortifications in the middle of his own realm so it is reasonable to conclude that they were built during the Three Realms Period. Hence, both Arthedain and Cardolan must have held forces along the line extending from the Bridge of Stonebows on the Baranduin all the way to Bree (and maybe Amon Sûl).

Thus Arthedain would have had forces positioned near Emyn Beraid, along the Weather Hills, and at Fornost Erain. Cardolan would have had forces positions along its borders from the Baranduin to the Mitheithel, south along the Mitheithel to where the Gwathlo was formed by the confluence of Mitheithel and Bruinen, and then southeast toward Tharbad. We don’t know anything about the size or dispositions of the forces commanded by the Harnen Erain of Cardolan.

Rhudaur would have been in a precarious position, facing potential enemies on the north (the wild tribes that eventually were absorbed into Angmar), the west (Arthedain), and the southwest (Cardolan). One wants to presume that the Rhûnen Erain of Rhudaur would remain on friendly or civil terms with the Eldar of Imladris.

The most practical arrangement for forces in Cardolan and Rhudaur alike might have been to maintain small border garrisons at strategically defensible points and a main army wherever the kings resided. Such distributions would explain why the kingdoms were able to bicker constantly over the borderlands, occasionally exchange control of key points such as Amon Sûl. Rhudaur would thus also have been the easiest of the kingdoms for Angmar to overrun, especially if the Dunedain there were always few in number.

In fact, the rise of Angmar could be used to divide the Three Realms Period into an Early Three Realms (pre-Angmar) and a Late Three Realms sub-period (Circa. Third Age 1300 to 1356). Those 50 or so years should have been very bad for the Dunedain of Rhudaur, whose Line of Isildur failed and was supplanted by a non-Dunadan hill-lord loyal to Angmar. The overthrow of the Dunedain must have led to the collapse of whatever army Rhudaur had; instead, the hill-lord’s men would have ruled as a sort of mob of brutes.

Cardolan’s forces threw in with Arthedain after their own Line of Isildur failed but Cardolan was overrun in the War of 1409, effectively destroying its military capabilities.

The Reconstituted Arnor Period would have begun with Arthedain’s army still separate from Cardolan’s army. If any loyal Rhudaurian soldiers lived they must have been absorbed into Arthedain’s military. For about 50 years the two armies maintained a joint defense of the Weather Hills, Great Road, and Mitheithel river. However, with the collapse of Cardolan’s forces in 1409 Arthedain’s military capability would have been severely reduced.

We can suppose that after the war Arthedain concentrated its forces in Fornost Erain, the Weather Hills, and Tharbad. Why Tharbad should have remained strategically important isn’t clear at all. Tolkien simply notes that the garrisons were removed or perished at the time of the Great Plague of 1636.

Nonetheless, having a smaller frontier to defend (essentially the North Downs and Weather Hills) from this time forward, Arthedain really did not need as large a military. One possible arrangement would be to position a large force at Fornost and a substantial but lesser force at outposts along the Weather Hills. And perhaps it would have made sense to keep some sort of garrison at Bree to protect the southern lands from outlaws and raiders.

All of these forces collapsed in the final war with Angmar. Tolkien notes that the Shire hobbitry sent archers to assist in the defense of Fornost Erain. Hence, Arvedui must have greatly increased his forces as much as possible before the final blow was struck. But there was no chance (apparently) for sending armies afield. Arthedain was overwhelmed and ceased to exist.

While this is all highly speculative it does fit the facts we know in what I think is a relatively simple extrapolation. And whereas Arnor’s expeditionary army in Elendil’s time could have numbered in the tens of thousands — perhaps even over 100,000 — afterwards Arnor most likely did not need more than 10-20,000 soldiers. The three realms of Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan each probably never fielded more than a few thousand soldiers at any time.

The Reconstiuted Arnor perhaps, at the height of its power (Circa. Third Age 1850), could have fielded 10,000 or more soldiers but by Arvedui’s time his enemies must have mustered many more troops than he. If, as I have speculated, Fornost Erain was defended by a dyke and wall much like Isengard’s defensive works, it would have taken a very considerable force to overwhelm the city.

Perhaps Tolkien envisioned Arvedui leading his army out to meet the army of Angmar in the field, being destroyed, and thus leaving the city relatively undefended. That would explain why Arvedui was able to defend the North Downs before he was forced to flee north. If his intelligence under-estimated the strength of Angmar’s army, and if he felt confident by the arrival of recently called-up reinforcements, Arvedui might have gambled on a bold strike against the enemy that went terribly wrong. And knowing nothing of the true nature power of the Witch-king Arvedui might have had no inkling of the terror his enemy could wield in battle.

However Tolkien might have played out the numbers in his thoughts or perhaps some unpublished notes, I think it’s safe to say that the armies of Arnor would have changed their sizes and purposes over the centuries; hence, one must apply some creativity to extrapolating how the forces of the Dunedain might have been organized throughout the Third Age.

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