Battle of Mirkwood

The Battle of Mirkwood, also known as Battle Under the Trees, is an incident in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. In his legendarium it takes place during the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age.

The Battle of Mirkwood was a major and prolonged series of battles in the War of the Ring. The Orcs of Dol Guldur tried to take Mirkwood and defeat the elves there but were repulsed. Sauron's main objective in the northern theatre of the war was the assault on Lothlórien, and the majority of the forces from Dol Guldur were used to attack it. Dol Guldur used its remaining forces against Thranduil's realm, to try to secure their flank. Sauron's plan was that his Easterling allies would join the attack on Thranduil, overwhelming them, thus allowing Dol Guldur to focus all of its forces on Lothlórien. However, the Easterlings were occupied with besieging the Dwarves at Lonely Mountain, and were never able to join the attack on Thranduil. Fierce fighting raged throughout the forest, and there was "great ruin of fire" [J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings", "The Return of the King", (1966 2nd edition), p.375] as woods were set alight during the battle. King Thranduil led his elves to victory and defeated the orcs, [J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings", "The Return of the King", (1966 2nd edition), p.374] then with the help of Galadriel advanced on Dol Guldur after Sauron's fall, and destroyed the evil place.

At the end of the Second Age, during the War of the Last Alliance, the Sylvan Elves of Greenwood raised a great army [J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien editor, "Unfinished Tales", (1980), p.258, Oropher raises a 'host' consisting of his "great army" and the "lesser army of Malgalad"] and it fought at the Battle of Dagorlad and the Siege of Barad-dúr. Their losses in this war were very great, some two-thirds of the army. [J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien editor, "Unfinished Tales", (1980), p.258] Thranduil led this reduced army back to Eryn Lasgalen. It was still large enough that a great company of two thousand orcs made no attempt to ambush or contest its march. [J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien editor, "Unfinished Tales", (1980), p. 282, "...even his diminished army was far too strong for them...".] Near the end of Third Age, prior to the War of the Ring, Thranduil leads a hastily mustered, small army to the relief of the town of Dale. It fought at the Battle of Five Armies, it was composed of Wood Elves armed mainly with spears and bows and numbered perhaps two to three thousand.ME-fact|date=October 2007 In the War of the Ring, Thranduil is initially on the defensive but is able to deploy his full strength of his army.

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*Middle-earth warfare