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Battle of Helm's Deep
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Date
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Good Factions
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Evil Factions
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Good Characters
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Evil Characters
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Good Numbers
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3,000 Rohirrim
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Evil Numbers
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10,000 Orcs of the White Hand and Dunlendings
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Victory
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Good
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Notes
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† = killed in action
(N) = non-canon |
Canonically named the Battle of the Hornburg.
The Army of the White Hand launched a massive assault on the fortress of Helm's Deep in the Westfold of Rohan. All of the Rohir children and women present were sheltered in the caves of Aglarond, and contrary to popular belief, no youths were pressed into service in the army.
The White Hand's Army was commanded by Móg and Thrugg. After an elderly soldier shot an Uruk named Daskila in the neck, Móg ordered the army to attack the fortress. It began at the Deeping Wall, as great siege ladders rose against the wall, bringing dozens of orcs with them. The defending archers were able to slay more than 200 Orcs and Uruks with their bows, but after the wall was besieged by the orcs, they had to drop the bows and unsheathe their longswords.
Móg ordered the sappers to destroy the wall; two bombs were placed at the culvert through which ran the Deeping Stream, and an Uruk Berserker with a torch ignited them and destroyed a large section of the wall. After that, hundreds of orcs entered the wall through the breach. Aragorn, angered because of Haldir's death, impaled Thrugg's neck and pushed his dead body onto the pikes of the Uruk-hai army.
The Wall was overrun, and the defenders were forced to retreat to the keep or the caves. The front gate of the Hornburg was impaled by a ram and a large hole opened. Wraskú shot 3 Rohan Soldiers but was shot by 2 other arrows and he fell dead in the gate's hole. The women and children and other defenders fled deeper into the caverns and worked to seal off entrances.
Dunlendings led by Dúach and Thrydan Wolfbane soon began attacking the castle. Theoden managed to behead Thrydan, and Dúach fell off the keep but did not die. Soon, the Rohir army was defeated, but Theoden decided to fight one last time and he, Aragorn, and the surviving soldiers launched a mounted charge and killed many Uruks in the keep. Morflak was beheaded by Aragorn but the Orcs were still far numerous than the men.
Gandalf, Erkenbrand, and Eomer arrived at dawn with 2,000 Rohirrim riders, which was terrible for the orcs; most of them were slain after fleeing into the Waiting Wood of Ents and Huorns (see Skirmish of the Legion of the White Hand). Only 4,000 thousand men escaped the battle but were captured (and later released) by Rohan.
