Middle-earth's 5 Biggest Battles | Tolkien Deep Dive

Middle-earth's five largest battles reveal an extraordinary pattern: as each age passes, the scale of warfare dramatically diminishes. The War of Wrath in the First Age lasted forty-three years, involving divine hosts and dragons the size of mountains, ultimately sinking the entire continent of Beleriand. Nirnaeth Arnoediad saw over one hundred thousand combatants clash on the plain of Anfauglith, the largest mortal army ever assembled, destroyed by treachery when Uldor's Easterlings turned on the Union of Maedhros. The Battle of Dagorlad and seven-year Siege of Barad-dûr brought all Free Peoples together in the Last Alliance, ending when Gil-galad and Elendil fell facing Sauron on Mount Doom. By the Third Age, the Battle of Pelennor Fields—though decisive for Gondor's survival—involved only sixty-three thousand combatants over a single day. This progression isn't mere decline: Tolkien shows how diminishing divine power paradoxically increases moral weight, making smaller battles fought by mortals without heavenly intervention more meaningful than continent-shattering wars of gods.