Battle of the Pelennor Fields

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields was the greatest battle of the War of the Ring, fought before the walls of Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, upon the broad fields of the Pelennor. There the host of Mordor under the Lord of the Nazgûl sought to take the city and break the chief realm of Men in the West, and there they were thrown back in one of the decisive clashes of the age.

Background

Sauron had gathered an enormous army to crush Gondor before the free peoples could unite. His forces, led by the Witch-king, greatest of the Nazgûl, laid siege to Minas Tirith, breaking through the outer defenses, burning the fields of the Pelennor, and at last shattering the great Gate of the city with the dread battering ram Grond. The city's defenders, led by the steward's son Faramir and ordered by the despairing Steward Denethor, were hard pressed and on the verge of ruin.

The Battle

At the darkest hour, as the Witch-king broke the Gate, the horns of Rohan sounded. King Théoden had come at last with the Rohirrim, six thousand riders, and they charged into the besieging host, scattering the enemy footmen and driving them in rout across the fields. But the tide turned again when the Witch-king, mounted upon a winged beast, struck down King Théoden beneath his fallen horse.

It was then that the prophecy that no living man could slay the Witch-king was undone. Éowyn, the king's niece, who had ridden to war in secret in the guise of a man, stood over her fallen king and faced the Lord of the Nazgûl. With the aid of the hobbit Merry, who pierced the wraith from behind with an ancient blade, Éowyn drove her sword into the place where his face should have been, and the Witch-king was undone -- for she was no man.

The battle was further turned by the arrival of Aragorn, who came up the Anduin in the captured ships of the Corsairs, having summoned the Army of the Dead to his banner, with the men of southern Gondor at his side. Caught between the Rohirrim, the city's defenders, and Aragorn's host, the army of Mordor was destroyed.

Aftermath

The victory at the Pelennor saved Minas Tirith and Gondor from destruction, but at heavy cost: King Théoden of Rohan was slain, and many lords and warriors fell. The fall of the Witch-king removed Sauron's deadliest captain. With the field won, the captains of the West resolved to march on the Black Gate itself, to draw the Eye of Sauron away from the secret errand of the Ring-bearer.

Significance

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields was the great clash of arms of the War of the Ring, the moment at which the might of Mordor was broken in open battle before Gondor. Yet its true purpose, the captains knew, was to buy time and draw Sauron's attention, so that Frodo and Sam might reach Mount Doom unseen.