14. I do not claim anything that is claimed by J.R.R. Tolkien or Peter Jackson.
As short as a hobbit, this one...
Review of reviews: down below.
Emyn Muil
"Dago han! Dago han, Legolas! Dago han!" [Bring him down!]* from the branch he was standing on, Legolas could see his lieutenant running for his life. He fired three arrows at the first Uruk-hai in pursuit, jumping down after Rovalhon passed under his feet, unleashing in mid-air his two long-knifes, thus cutting up the second Uruk-hai. The Uruk-hai fell towards Legolas, since he had been moving at full speed forward. The third Uruk-hai helped his dead fellow by giving him a heavy push. Legolas had not been firm on his feet yet when he slew the second Uruk-hai and was not able to push the corpse back, since his hands were holding his knives. He fell back, with the dead Uruk-hai covering his body. This gave the third Uruk-hai an advantage: it was just bringing its hooked sword down when suddenly something hindered his motion and he came crushing down altogether. With an exertion Legolas pulled both his arms free from under the dead Uruk-hai, putting them round the corpse as in an embrace and thus piercing the third one with his long knives. The next moment Rovalhon was pulling the Uruk-hai of his captain. He had made a turn the moment Legolas jumped down, thus coming behind the two Uruk-hai. He had pulled one of Legolas's arrows from the first Uruk-hai and shot the third in his back, just as the foul creature was about to bring the sword down. They both pulled themselves up onto the nearest branch and climbed further into the tree. On a branch some eight feet from the ground they stopped and looked into the direction where Rovalhon had come from.
"Úharn?" Rovalhon panted. "Úharn! A harnach?" Legolas asked. After a deep breath Rovalhon answered: "Uharn! Deleb glamhoth!" [Ro: Not harmed? Le: Not harmed! And you not harmed? Ro: Not harmed! Disgusting host of orcs!] "Pedo!"[Speak! (Tell!)] Legolas demanded. Rovalhon had his breathing under control again and continued: "Seventy or more and they are on the move!" "In which direction are they going?" asked Legolas.
"Towards us!" was the answer. Legolas did not waste another moment: "Fast! We have to tell the others". Quickly they went back to the others, travelling through the trees.
Legolas was on his way to the Morn Dant** and with him twenty elvenwarriors. It had been no problem getting any. The elves of Eryn Lasgalen had been very proud of their Prince, playing a part in the downfall of Sauron. The only thing they did not like, was the idea that no other elf had fought in the last Ringwar. And so king Thranduil had to choose from several volunteers.
Yes, Legolas was on his way, yet his company did not make great progress. In the southern parts of Eryn Lasgalen they encountered their first orcs. It had been a small group and together with the elves of East Lórien, that dwelt there now*** they had had no trouble overcoming them. Since then they had been meeting groups of orcs of different species. Some were of the old orc-races that would not travel by day, some of the more new ones, 'invented' by Saruman, like the Uruk-hai. First the groups were small and they were met days apart. However, the further they had come into the hills of the Emyn Muil the larger the groups and the more often their encounters became. And now Rovalhon had found some seventy of the filthy creatures. This was the largest number as yet.
The two elves had been scouting the terrain towards Nen Hithoel and Rovalhon had wandered from his captain following a deer. In hot pursuit he had literally stumbled over the three Uruks. One had come at him with a knife, before he was on his feet again. Luckily the knife caught the straps of his quiver and not his neck that it was aimed at. So only armed with his bow, he had to run for it. While fleeing along the edge of a steep valley he had the questionable benefit of seeing the band of orcs.
"Maetham! Maetham! Glamhoth padar an men!" [We fight! We fight! Host of orcs walks towards us!]. Alarmed by Rovalhon's call every warrior sprang into action. Rovalhon told them all that he had seen and a quick plan of attack was made. Soon there was no trace of any elf beneath the trees, they all had climbed up. "And so we fight again..." Legolas sighed softly. "You do not want to fight?" Rovalhon was sitting only a few branches lower than Legolas and had heard him. "I do! I fight!" the determined voice of his captain came back. Then after a short silence, he continued, barely heard: "My wish is to go to Udûn, I do not want to clear the entire Emyn Muil of rabble!" he paused and then whispered: "Here they come!"
The Uruks appeared over the rim of the slope. The elves let them pass under them until they surrounded the host. Then they started their attack from the trees with arrows. After this first attack one by one the warriors leaped out of the trees and fought further on the ground. Legolas was one of the last to come out of the tree. His skill was his bow and as long as possible he took out their opponents with arrows; all his arrows killed.
By the time that Legolas lowered himself to the ground, the combatants were already standing in a layer of dead bodies, blood and mud. Adversary after adversary they slew. The Uruk-hai were unprepared for this fight. They had merely been on route and it took them by surprise. They needed some time to organize themselves to be of any opposition to the elves. Although they were fighting machines and the time they needed was short, more than half of them had been killed by then.
The elves attacked on more than one point at a time. Because of this multiple-point-strategy the Uruks found their adversaries at their left and right, front and back, and some, like Legolas, in their middle. It only became dangerous for the elves when the Uruks encircled the ones that were fighting in the middle of the herd. But the elves knew the pros and cons of their battle tactics. Every time, an elf got in trouble because he could not handle the group of Uruks that encircle him, he would call: "Rind! Rind!" [Circle!], and the enemies would then be fiercely attacked by the ones outside the encircling group. The encircled elf crouched and with his spear**** chopped all legs from under his assailants, his strong backplate protecting him from the assaults of the Uruks. Should the others not be able to get to the encircling enemies soon enough, then the ones that were able to withdraw, pulled themselves out of the battle and into the trees and started to fire arrows onto the specific enemies. This was necessary only twice in this battle.
As soon as the Uruks found out they were in minority, they fled, pursued by the elfs. Some of the fleeing Uruks were caught in the act by an arrow; others were slain with knives or spears. Only two hours after Legolas and Rovalhon had killed Rovalhon's pursuers the fight was over. They were tending to their wounded and piled up the carcasses of the dead Uruks. "Úlacho! I osp trenara pân," [Do not flame (set fire to) them. The smoke (will) attract(s) all] Legolas ordered. And after he made sure that every warrior could walk they were on the move again.
Little did they know that eyes followed their every move; one opponent got away.
A/Ns:* You've probably recognized this from the Battle of Helm's Deep, from Peter Jackson's TTT. I confess: guilty as charged.
** This was also in chapter 13: I renamed the place where the Black Gate stood into Black Fall (since 'ruin' was not in my sindarin dictionary).
***Lothlórien faded after the passing of Galadriel and Celeborn but some of the elves that had lived there moved to the south of Eryn Lasgalen. They called the new land East Lórien and lived there peacefully for many long years.
**** I don't know whether only the High Elves fought with this 'knife on a stick'. But since there remained some of them at the time of the War of the Rings, I can imagine that maybe one moved to the realm of Thranduil. And so I made the elves of Mirkwood also capable of fighting with this weapon.
I hope I described the battle-scene adequate enough. I've never wrote anything like it. I'm a rather peace loving type of human.
Review of reviews:
To Lyn: I liked your review about the proverb. Literally it says: two flies in one blow. So I suppose your American and Japanese proverbs are very close.
To all others: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
13 September 2003: changed a semantic matter.
