Battle of the Hornburg

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{{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Battle of the Hornburg |image=Image:Helmsdeep-siege.jpg |caption=The Battle of the Hornburg in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Two Towers |date=March 4, 3019 T.A. |place=Helm's Deep, Rohan |result=Rohan victory |combatant1=Isengard |combatant2=Rohan |commander1=Saruman |commander2=Théoden, Gandalf, Aragorn, Éomer, Erkenbrand |strength1=10,000 Uruk-hai and common Orcs, 2,000-5,000 Dunlendings |strength2=about 2,000 Rohirrim; reinforced by 1,000 more Rohirrim in the morning, and the Huorns |casualties1=All Uruks and normal Orcs, most Dunlendings |casualties2=Unknown }} Template:Campaignbox War of the Ring

The Battle of the Hornburg (or Battle of Helm's Deep) is a fictional battle in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. The battle pitted the forces of Saruman against the warriors of Rohan under King Théoden, who had taken refuge in the mountain fortress of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep.

The forces of Saruman, common Orcs and Uruk-hai, together with human Dunlendings, arrived at the valley of Helm's Deep in the middle of the night. They quickly scaled over the first defense, Helm's Dike, and attempted to break down the fortress's gate with a battering ram. But Aragorn, Éomer, and the Rohirrim attacked, scattering the forces threatening the doors.

Meanwhile, Legolas and Gimli had agreed to a contest - to kill more enemies than the other did.

The Orcs and Dunlendings then raised hundreds of ladders to scale the wall. Aragorn and Éomer had to repeatedly move the tired defenders to repel the Orcs coming up the ladders and crossing the wall. However, some Orcs had crept in though a culvert which let a stream out of Helm's Deep, and while the defenders were busy with the assault on the wall, they suddenly attacked, having made it past the wall. The defenders quickly reacted and drove back the Orcs, and the culvert was blocked up under supervision by the Dwarf Gimli.

However, the enemies reentered the culvert and made a wide hole in the wall using an explosive device invented by Saruman, a "blasting-fire". The defenders retreated to the Glittering Caves (Éomer and Gimli among them) and to the Deep.

At this time Aragorn called for a parley, and told the jeering Uruks that they would all die if they would not retreat, for no enemy had yet taken the Hornburg. They did not listen, however.

Soon Saruman's forces used their blasting-fire to gain entrance to the Deep. At this moment, however, the horn of Helm's Deep was sounded, and after a moment a sortie led by Théoden and Aragorn rode forth, followed by men on foot. Théoden and Aragorn cut through the Orcs and Dunlendings and arrived at Helm's Dike.

Both armies then noticed that many Huorns had moved to block a possible escape route for the Orcs. Then Gandalf arrived on Shadowfax, with Erkenbrand and a thousand men on foot. They and Théoden's forces charged. The Dunlendings were so terrified of Gandalf that they could no longer fight. The Orcs lost control and ran into the "forest" of Huorns, where they were destroyed. Thus, Rohan won the battle.

After the battle those Dunlendings who surrendered were given amnesty by King Théoden and allowed to return home (much to their surprise, since Saruman had told them that the men of Rohan would burn all survivors alive). The Rohirrim required that all hostilities cease, and that the Dunlendings retreat behind the River Isen again. The slain Dunlendings were buried in a mound of their own apart from the Orc carcasses.

Among the Rohirrim dead was Hama, captain of the King's guard and doorward of Meduseld. Gimli had lost his helm and was wounded in the head, but had killed forty-two to Legolas' forty-one.

In adaptations

In Ralph Bakshi's animated film

The Battle of the Hornburg is a key part of Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation. However, it is never referred to by that name, or any other name.

Bakshi calls the fortress itself "Helm's Deep". Properly speaking, the fortress is the Hornburg and Helm's Deep is the ravine behind it. In one of his letters regarding a proposed film adaptation, Tolkien protested the use of Helm's Deep, stating that, "the 'defence of the Hornburg'...would be a better title, since Helm's Deep, the ravine behind, is not shown" (Letters, 210).

One noticeable difference is that the "blasting-fire", originally explosives in the novel, is turnened into magical projectiles resembling comets coming from Isengard (Aragorn, seeing them, calls out "Fire of Isengard!"). More importantly, Éomer is not present at the start of the battle. Gandalf rides off to find him and his Riders, and returns with them at the end. Also, Aragorn and Legolas repel a battering-ram crew by themselves, as opposed to the book where Aragorn and Éomer lead a sortie.

Peter Jackson's "Battle of Helm's Deep"

The Battle of the Hornburg is also a key part of Peter Jackson's film adaptation, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The amount of screen time spent on the battle is huge, compared to the rest of the film. In contrast, the battle occupies one chapter in Tolkien, relatively short compared to the rest of the book (due to his writing style). It should be noted, however, that the Battle of the Pelennor Fields also occupies one chapter in The Return of the King.

In the context of the film, it is referred to as the Battle of Helm's Deep, a title which was never used by Tolkien but which is often used by fans, probably because "Helm's Deep" is the title of the chapter where it is recounted.

As already given above, the fortress is the Hornburg and Helm's Deep is the ravine behind it, properly speaking. On the significance of the Battle, Tolkien also comments in the same letter that "If both the Ents and the Hornburg cannot be treated at sufficient length to make sense, then one should go. It should be the Hornburg, which is incidental to the main story".

In the movie, 10,000 of Saruman's Uruk-hai lay siege to the fortress which was defended by around 300 Rohirrim and 200 Elven archers (When Legolas says there are "300" Rohirrim there he may have meant at that time, as more were fleeing to the fortress, because visually there are more than 300 Rohirrim appearing on screen in the battle). These forces suffer heavy losses, but hold out till dawn, when Gandalf arrives with two thousand riders led by Éomer who finally turn the tide of the battle and send Saruman's forces into retreat. In the Extended Edition, the Huorns make an appearance; they were absent from the theatrical cut.

Before and during the battle, Jackson shows us women and children being sheltered within the area. Also, later he shows all boys able to carry weapons arming for battle, among them Haleth, son of Hama (who has already been killed by a Warg). However, in the book, the youngest combatants are probably in their late teens, because the women and children are safe at Dunharrow. Still, Legolas and Gimli's comments that many defending Helm's Deep have seen either "too many winters, or too few" is a direct quote from the book (spoken by Gamling in the text).

One major difference in the film is that Elrond, at the prompting of Galadriel, sends a contingent of Elven archers under the command of Haldir of Lórien to reinforce the defence of the keep. During the battle, many (if not all) of the Elves are killed, including Haldir. In the book, Legolas merely wishes that they had some of his folk with them, but tells Gimli that they are busy with their own troubles. (In fact, the Elves of Lothlórien and Mirkwood did withstand assaults by Sauron's armies, and later took and cleansed Dol Guldur together.) This change was met with both bitterness and enthusiasm with viewers of various persuasions (readers of the original book, "Jacksonites", etc.). A somewhat similar event takes place in the books, in which Elrond and Galadriel send a company of Aragorn's fellow Rangers, led by his kinsman Halbarad and accompanied by Elrond's sons, Elladan and Elrohir, bringing with them the banner of Gondor (made by Arwen) and the advice to take the Paths of the Dead. In the book, however, this takes place after the Battle of the Hornburg, and is a much smaller force (thirty-three).

During the battle, the Uruks use siege weapons like battering rams and ballistas; also, they use crossbows and siege ladders. They also employ bands of Uruk berserkers, who are responsible for giving the Uruks a near victory.

In the battle, the Dunlendings only use a ram (as mentioned above), and no other siege weapons are mentioned; also, the book makes no mention of crossbows, only bows. Also, Saruman's army in the film is solely composed of Uruks, though some of his Wild Men are shown attacking some farmers early in the film. The films tended to avoid killing the human "allies" of the dark powers (Dunlendings, Easterlings, etc) on screen, because this would have been more "realistic violence" than killing Orcs and the censors might have given them an R rating.

Aragorn's parley is not featured. He and Gimli, however, share a scene where they sneak through a side-door and he tosses the dwarf into a group of enemies who are battering down the doors to the keep. This scene, while popular with Jackson's fans, felt jarring and was insulting to Gimli, according to others.

Concerning the climax of the battle, there are some minor changes from the book to the film. In the original text, Gandalf returns with infantry led by Erkenbrand, whereas in the film they are cavalry led by Éomer. In the book, Éomer is of course present at the start of the battle, and holds his own fighting alongside Aragorn, although he is later driven into the caves with Gimli. Also, Gimli, who is apparently unharmed throughout, blows Helm's Horn himself.

At the end of the battle, Gimli wins the contest by forty-three to Legolas' forty-two (both numbers are oddly different from the kill count in the book by exactly one). Jackson inserts another comedy scene here, with Legolas shooting a dead Uruk and claiming to win in jest.

Originally, Arwen was supposed to fight at Helm's Deep with the Elves, disguised as one of them; she would have brought the reforged Andúril to Aragorn. Her audition script featured a scene where she and Aragorn talk shortly before the battle. Battle scenes with Liv Tyler were actually filmed, but Peter Jackson decided to rewrite and replace them, due to Tyler not suiting her Xena-type role, and possibly due to fan outrage (they dubbed her XenArwen), although Peter Jackson has stated that such ideas were made very early in production, when Miramax still wanted the entire story fit into only two, two hour-long movies, and the plot had to incredibly condensed. Once the film switched over to New Line Cinema, heavy re-writes removed most of these condensations. In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Elrond himself gives Andúril to Aragorn after the battle.he:קרב נקרת הלם no:Slaget om Helmsdjupet pl:Bitwa o Rogaty Gród fi:Ämyrilinnan taistelu sv:Slaget vid Helms klyfta