Armies and Hosts of Middle-earth Warfare - Armies of Middle-earth, Hierarchy and Organization

Armies of Middle-earth, Hierarchy and Organization

The charts below show the general hierarchical terms used by Tolkien to describe military formations and organization, and how these relate to specific or estimated strengths in battles throughout the history of Middle-earth. These terms, with host indicating military forces larger than an army and the others indicating forces smaller than an army, are used with a remarkable general consistency over the time of Tolkien's writings from 1917–1972, as well as an in-universe consistency over the three ages of Middle-earth.

There are certainly times when some of these words: host, army, company, band are used outside of this context. For example: host can refer to the whole of a people which includes males, females and children, not just the warriors, or "the war-high", to use Tolkien's own phrase. At times, army can mean a singular fighting force of no set size, as can company, or host. Within the context of most battle, or war, descriptions these terms are generally consistent throughout the canon. More modern military terms such as battalion and regiment see occasional use, but are not widespread.

While estimates of numbers can be often supported textually by simple extension of textually cited numbers, they are only estimates when there is not a specific number stated by Tolkien. However, it can be said with some certainty that a description of strength using the Names, such as: Name-host (e.g. Great-host) as a number of the Name-armies (e.g. Orc-armies), is supported textually across the board in the canon, as the selected, but by no means only, references demonstrate.

It is important to consider the context in which these terms appear in the stories since, as a writer of fiction, Tolkien's primary purpose is to engage and entertain the reader while not being tied to a set terminology the way a military historian must be. Tolkien sometimes adopts just that historian stance going into great detail about tactical movements, weapons and formations as he does in The Battles of the Fords of Isen, or Cirion and Eorl. He can apply the same attention to detail to the drill of a shield-wall formation as to the intricacies of family relationships of the Sackville-Baggins.