That throwing weapon Aragorn used in Helm's Deep. It's overly heavy, hairy and moves around too much to get a good toss in.

Undead king riding a nazgûl? Hate to be a nerd but he's actually the nazgûl and the flying lizard is called a fell beast.

The arrowhead are that shape to comply with Elf and Safety regulations.

Saruman: *“TO WAR!”* Matt: “Hold on. I’ve got a few questions about your weapon choices.”

The witch king doesn't ride a nazgul, he *is* one.

Director: "The elves need leaf bladed arrow head. " Prop Dept. Apprentice: searches for 'Leaf bladed' and finds pics of leaf bladed Boar spears: "Wow it's like a giant arrow, I can just make mini ones."

"The spiteful elves created these arrows so that they do not kill their enemies, but instead wound them, so that the hateful elf can watch them suffer and bleed, being kept alive and taken to their disgusting tree gulags." Sincerely a Dwarf.

To quote the actor who played the witchking: "Some people call it a mace, some people call it a morning star... i just called it a 'damn heavy'. 'Cause it was DAMN HEAVY."

Theoden: SHIELD SHALL BE SPLINTERED! Shield: Nope.

There's actually a bit about the Witchking's flail in some of the behind the scenes segments. Basically, any time the prop people delivered the flail, Peter Jackson would ask them to go back and make it bigger. That happened like four times in a row until it ended up at that silly size. During the actual filming they had people just out of frame holding up the flail head, because even the Witchking's actor simply couldn't lift it with one hand alone.

Matt Easton : "Why not hold the shield in front of you?" Rohirrim : "DEATH!"

Fun fact: they designed the Witch King’s flail was designed as a joke, but apparently PJ liked it so much that they put it in the movie... I agree, though, I’ve never liked that fail.

Yeah, that one line in _Return of the King_ confuses so many people. The Witch-King of Angmar isn't riding a Nazgûl, he _is_ a Nazgûl. The thing he rides is referred to as some kind of "fell beast".

“Ditch the shields!” Things I never thought I’d hear Matt say. ;-)

The context of the "Easterlings" is that they are marching to join Mordors army, not participate in an ongoing battle. They may just be transporting all of their gear and could switch weapon combination for a conflict, they should just wear the shields on their back tho.

They probably brought pikes just in case of an open attack on the plains as they marched towards Helms Deep. That's why the pikemen (pikeorcs?) were at the back of the pack once the siege started. Love your videos man. Much respect from Canada.

Shouldn't dwarves carry pole weapons to make up for their short height?

Calling it the "original" trilogy in the wake of Christopher Tolkien's death is scaring me to think that they might be about to remake it. I don't think I could handle a Disney-fied remake of LOTR in the vein of Star Wars' new trilogy.

Re: Elven Arrowheads; they were shaped vaguely likr the Brooch Pins that Galadriel gave to the members of the Fellowship. Imho, the similarities were deliberately inclu,dad, or the Fellowship was surprised by a group of Elven rabbit hunters?

The One Ring for me, definitely. Completely unrealistic and historically inaccurate...

The witchking's weapon was clearly impractical, despite being enormous. One might say it was an epic flail... I'll see myself out.

I might be wrong, but the Uruk-Hai pikes look like they're trying to evoke the silhouette of a rifle with a bayonet. Peter Jackson's fond of WWI imagery, and he was well aware that Tolkien's own military experience had influnced his writing. As for the Rohirrim and their shields: I can give them a pass on this one. They use shields whenever they're fighting on foot, so it makes sense for them to ride into battle prepared for all outcomes. Same goes for the Easterlings and their shield/halberd combination. We never actually see them trying to fight with both weapons at the same time - we only encounter them when they're on the march. They might simply be on their way to war prepared to fight either with halberds, OR with sword and shield, depending on the opposition they encounter. [Edit to add: according to other commenters, we DO in fact see Easterlings fighting at Minas Tirith with shields and halberds. My mistake, I guess I forgot that detail despite having watched the extended trilogy many times.]

I think that I heard somewhere that the hook on the pikes was to assist in raising ladders during the siege. That would only justify like 10% of them, though.

I'm fairly forgiving of distorting weapon sizes in film as there's usually a bit of wiggle room as to scale om film. The Witch kings flail is a perfect example. We almost never see it stationary in a wide shot so its actual size of the prop is pretty well concealed while still looking imposing on a 2D screen.

@scholagladiatoria As to the Elven arrow heads, Every scene I can find where they aren't pointed at a hero(all clips here are pointed at "friendly" targets) the elves use normal arrow heads. I suspect your hunting/not really lethal arrowheads were on purpose. In those scenes the Elves were not attacking, but gently persuading the heroes. Legolas, from what I can make out the elves at helms deep, and the elves in the battle of the five armies all use normal arrow heads.

The real question is - did they make those arrowheads before or after the infamous incident where an actual dagger has accidentally been thrown at Viggo Mortensen who had to knock it out of the air with his sword?

Regarding the Rohan and their shields, i'd always thought that they were modelled more on the Anglo-Saxons at the time of the Battle of Hastings, where they rode to battle but dismounted to fight. In the books there is the battle of the Fords of Isen before Helms Deep (which is where Theodred dies) and in that battle they are said to have dismounted and fought on foot in a shield wall, i'd imagine that was their preferred style of combat. I think in popular culture they've become synonymous with being an 'all mounted' military culture, mostly because in the books and films they are always 'charging to the rescue' but i don't neccessarily think that was the original intention, while they do revere horses and they are part of their iconography etc. it isn't neccessarily the case that they are equivalent of something like the huns or mongols who's entire military was geared around mounted troops. That is borne out by their equipment, they wear particularly heavy armour for a culture based around mounted combat, round shields are hardly optimal (but they are explicitly stated as using round shields). That would go some way to explain why they carry heavy round shields rather than something like a Kite Shield

Ironically, having handled a bunch of these props, the latex heads on the polearms actually make them lighter than the solid wood of the shields, those easterling ones in particular. (I guarded some weta buildings & weta decorates with props).

I believe you’ve already said this in a recent video but my main gripe is the lack of “arming sword” representation among the heroes in particular. Boromir’s sword for example is quite short in the blade next to all the long swords they are handing out, and yet the still put a two handed grip on it. Theoden was given a onehanded sword, which keeps it at least a little faithful to the migration era/Viking era type. But for almost everyone else, it seems that they don’t know how to do one handed sword choreography. I critique because I love.

The way Gandalf uses his staff sometimes bothers me slightly. When he's using it for magic that's fine but sometimes he just hits an orc with it and the orc falls over dead. Hitting a fully armoured orc with a wooden staff is probably not going to do much damage. But then I guess maybe there is some magic at work that you can't see. Overall though LOTR has some of the best weapons, armour and battle tactics in Hollywood.

Great video. Was hoping for the Uruk-Hai sword (the "broad-blade" thing with a "back claw" thingie)

With the flail the intention was actually to make it as "ridiculous" as possible. Peter Jackson had the prop guys make bigger and bigger versions of it until even he said that it was comically large, but that of course doesn't make it any more useful were it a more realistic scenario.

I really like how when the Elves reforge Narsil into Anduril they change the size of the guard, grip etc. Narsil was made for someone much taller than Aragorn and they adjust it to work for him instead.

Those pike heads look like the model was things like the pikes used by the Irish rebels in 1798 where there were hooks and other things on them.

3:15 I read somewhere that the "in-universe" explanation for why the hooky-bit is on the pike is to help to push up ladders during the battle of Helms Deep. I thing they also wrote that the reason why so many was brought to the battle was enable the uruks to stab the defenders on topp of the wall from the ground (yeah, that is pretty silly xD)

There a video about the process of making Witch Kings flail. Initially it was very realistic, reasonable. And then Peter Jackson said "I want it bigger!". So the crew made bigger, more elaborate version. And then he looked at it and said again "bigger". And then again... Even after seeing the final version he wanted it bigger, but they talked him out of it xD

Leaving the shields off altogether would have still caused some issues. In scenes before and after the "Ride of the Rohirrim," they are shown with shields while on foot. If they didn't have shields on their horses, people might question what happened to the shields? Magic pockets? Like you said though- probably didn't hold them for safety.

How historically accurate is the Balrog's whip?

1) The curved blades of the elves. I know the prop department wanted to distinguish the different cultures, and they did a pretty good job; but for Tolkien, a Northern-European Catholic and veteran of the Great War, curved blades signify the East -from the Balkans (identified by Tolkien as Mordor) eastward - and are exclusively used by orcs and Easterlings. 2) The ridiculously large standard-issue fantasy axes of the dwarves. 3) The swords that Aragorn (and every other character in fantasy films) throws (you can't). 4) The 30lb bows held at full draw as if they were muskets (Aragorn: 'fire!') by the elves, rather than the Lothlorien 'war bow' Tolkien describes Legolas using as a indicator of his strength, and the use of two arrows on the same string, another trope of fantasy films (again, you can't). 5) And even though it's not a weapon, the ridiculous (and totally ineffectual) plate armour worn by the elves and Gondorians, while Tolkien always describes his good characters 'clad in mail'. Tolkien's historical framework for arms and armour in the Lord of the Rings was the dark ages, not late Medieval Europe.

Great video again, Matt. I remember the parrying daggers used by the Nazgul had crossguards sloping toward the arm rather than sloping upward.

The design of the witch kings weapon is entirely Peter Jackson's idea. The prop team made several weapons and each time he said to make it bigger xD

The elvens arrow head looks exactly like a tiny "Saufeder" :-D

Hey Man! Great Video as always! But here's a quick thought process that came to my mind about the ELF Arrow Heads. They fact that they were designed so as to impede penetration might actually have been an objective. Considering that the Elfs shown in the scene are more of a defensive nature, their objective might have been not to kill anyone who trespasses, but to Maim them and capture them for further interrogation. In such a circumstance, the non-lethal arrow heads would have been perfect for the task viz. "Not to kill but capture your Target ALIVE". I know its a fetched idea and you are the expert here. But this is my understanding of these arrowheads' purpose.

For the uruk hai pikes, the head design ties into why they were at helms deep seige, the hooks were used to push up the seige ladders

Matt Easton says "by and large" a few times, immediately reminds me of Lindybeige.

There's a good reason that the shields carried by the Rohirrim are historically accurate representations of early mediaeval shields. The creation of the Horselords of Rohan was influenced by Mercia. Tolkien used historical Mercian names for the nobility, and Meduseld itself harkens to the meadhall culture of early mediaeval England

I got an unskippable 6 minute ad about toilets and then another 5 minute ad about soap. You're lucky I love you Matt.

"Pike blocks aren't terribly useful in sieges..." EXCUSE ME! I have destroyed countless buildings with my spearmen and pikemen in Age of Empires! Pikes work just fine! On a serious note - what do you think of those long-handled elven swords, like what they use in opening battle?

Well of course roharrim had to wear their shields as shown in the film, otherwise they could have taken an arrow to the knee!

The pike head was designed to look like a can opener to make them seem more imposing if I remember correctly. But yeah, not optimal.

In response to the two handed easterling halberds and shield part, Shad just made a great video explaining how you can use two handed weapons and pole weapons with big shields, based on historical artwork, by having a strap round the neck and a corner strap. Great video for those interested.

I had noticed those arrowheads, too. It's like the elves wanted arrows that didn't penetrate deeply. Like, they're going for non-lethal wounding.

7:48 How annoyed were you by the guy whose mail fell over his eyes while charging? :D

As for the elven arrowheads bit, I'm pretty sure those arrowheads might've been meant to only capture the fellowship if they fought back rather than severely wound them, Galadriel wouldn't have sent out a group armed to kill the fellowship simply because she knew who they were and why they were there.

Boromir is the only person in Middle-Earth who has learned that shields are not for decoration.

Legolas uses bodkin arrow heads. The ones you refered to were most likely hunting arrows designed to make animals bleed out. They were a group of wood elves after all

The counterpoint that the Witch-King has super human strength would be a lot more compelling if we didn't clearly see the flail being ridiculously slow and cumbersome in the movie itself.

I hadn't paid attention to the elf's arrow heads, they are truly atrocious. If the arrow heads were the same shape except having the protrusions just under the blade were thin and sharpened then it would be a valid design similar to a modern expanding hunting broadhead just in the open position. I doubt any larger movie will ever be made that uses historical arms that actually get all the weapons and tactics correct. There is not enough of an incentive/demand for movie companies to go through the trouble to make sure they are doing everything correct.

Thank you for the Elven arrowheads mention. That bothered me too! But then I’m an archery instructor. My big question with the Witch King’s flail is where did he stow that on his flying mount? How did we not see it sooner?

Another movie-related video, and once again - i'm repeating my request to talk about the monastery fight in Three Musketeers (1973, with Michael York), and also your opinion on Born for the Saber (you can find it on vimeo).

On point 4 and shields, as well as just hanging from the horse a lot of them are clearly right handed (or holding a weapon in their right hand at least) and have the shield on the right too - so maybe the reason why they don't use them is because someone put them on the wrong side of the horse so they can't reach with their left hand. 10:30 Elf archery - The Elf on the right has the arrow on his thumb, as usually seen in Eastern "thumb draw" styles but the Elf on the left has it on his knuckles as with Western European Mediterranean draws. In this shot it's understandable as they are basically extras so would have had basically no training but there is a similar shot in the Hobbit movies with Legolas and Tauriel. In fact Tauriel holds her bow differently in practically every shot demonstrating how little care was taken with those movies compared to the first Trilogy.

Please do a video on the “weapon crimes” of the hobbit films. Also it bothers me that the hobbits and dwarfs don’t make better use of pole weapons, spears etc.

Just a comment on the arrows; you're completely correct about the design and how they'd work. I'd only point out that in the scene you showed them, they're being used to capture trespassers... they may be the border patrol's equivalent of 'less than lethal' ammunition... just a thought

Thanks for the insightful criticisms. Coincidentally you had a screen shot of my least favorite lotr weapon with the commentary regarding rohirram shields: a Dane axe. On horseback. Held with one hand. Good for one swing, eh?

While I mostly love the design, the elven swords in LOTR not having any sort of crossguard always really bothered me.

When was the last time anyone saw a movie character clean their armour, let alone dry or grease it? Rust is never a thing in films. Incidentally the smell of rancid fat coming from pre industrial armies must have been overpowering.

Now that you point out the arrow heads, I can't help but totally agree. They are like mini winged spears. Which were specifically winged so they wouldn't go too far into a target (but conveniently, more like a foot, rather than an inch)

"Don't forget your shield." 5 minutes later: "Obviously I wasn't clear enough. Don't forget to USE your shield."

Those are actualy elven cops, hunting perps with their "non lethal" arrows

the hooks were there to assist with putting up ladders. allegedly.

The Uruk Hai swords. Completely forgoing the utility of a point and then sticking that spike on the reverse. AH HA that's the key they aren't really swords they're can openers without a point to prevent nasty accidents. I hear that Mordor's health and inhuman safety bureau is top notch!

Thank you ! Finally someone else points out those stupid arrow heads! My friends would always give me odd looks when I'd start to ramble on the ineffectiveness of elven arrow heads. Some people just aren't as detail oriented I suppose.

When it comes to the Easterling halberds, I understand, using both a halberd and a shield would be ridiculous. However these soldiers were not in combat, they were traveling. It is likely that they had a halberd, as well as a sword shield combination. These were used for different purposes. Think that a Macedonian pikeman would have both a pike, as well as a sword and shield. As we see with the two Easterlings who break off from the formation, they use their halberds with two hands, implying that that is how they were trained to use the weapon.

And here I thought the Elf swords at Helm's Deep would make the list, or the Uruk-Hai swords.

I never noticed the arrowheads before but as soon as you put those stills up I was in total agreement with you. I’m also looking forward to your armour vid

The thing you missed about the pikes is that they were equipped with them and marched. They were expecting to fight cavalry on the open field, that is what the wormtongue was meant to drive the Rohan to. The retreat and forced march to helms deep was unexpected. A secondary point you forget is that the Pike's are meant to break under the weight of the charge and inflict long suffering wounds. Fear and marching over the crying dead was how they cause the enemy to retreat so they can cut them down. The urak hai were supremely equipped to fight the Rohan ...as they expected to meet them. A last ditch defense on the open field before their towns and villages where they hoped to inspire fear and retreat so they could do what orcs do

It seems 5 Uruk's Pikeman and 4 elven archer disliked the video ! I found the Uruk Hai's blade weird to use with a shield aswell, it must be terrible at piercing and i can't imagine the weight and balance of these, i think when Andrew klaven talked about 10lbs sword, this was it, Uruk Hai swords maybe !? Also the Witchking's sword looks like it will snap in 2, this thing must have a rat tang... Maybe that's why it's covered by Darksword Armory. (trolling)

I was hoping for more double entendres. The way that the Witch-King used that flail as an offhand weapon struck me as pretty silly too. That, and the fact that his mount was a dead spit for the Jabberwock. A thing that struck me many years ago was that most of the characters in Tolkien have no visible means of support and can go for days without eating.

As others have commented about the Witch King’s flail, the prop guys originally made it smaller but Peter Jackson wanted bigger. Apparently they finally just made a version that was so huge and over the top they were SURE Jackson would go “too big”. Instead that is the version we got on screen. Allegedly Jackson later said he thought it could have been even bigger. Cinematically I think it works very well even if it in reality the weapon is utterly impractical. Sort of the equivalent of why big action stars use bigger pistols like the Desert Eagle, which is not the most practical weapon for a cop or a soldier for shootouts…but it looks really good and impressive on screen.

Fun fact: Witch King wanted to be a farmer, but Sauron said no. So he designed his flail to do a farming work. Also, as pointed out before, Nazgul are the Nine Riders. The beast he rides is often called a Fell Beast, though I'm not sure whether that is actual name.

Good video, though one thing that bothers me a bit is the usage of the word "original" in the title, given that - unlike Star Wars - these movies are adaptations of a book trilogy. Incidentally, most of the bad tactics and questionable weapon designs occurring in the movies are absent from Tolkien's original novels.

Cant believe thattpudisnt mention the single biggest weapon failure in the whole trilogy... the Uruk-hai make their swords by casting...

There was a book called lotr weapons and warfare that takes a deep dive into the weapons. In it, it says that the uruk-hai were all armed with pikes because they expected to be attacked by riders on their way to helms deep. It also talks about the pike head being designed so that the pikemen could help in pushing up the ladders.

I read about the lack of use of shields years ago from someone who rode horses for the films. They basically just asked random New Zealand horse owners if they wanted to be in the films and naturally a lot of them said yes. Most of them though found it difficult to be riding in formation with the armour, weapons, shields and reins (a lot were just casual horse riders) so it was decided they wouldn’t have the shield strapped to their arms to make it easier and allowing the riders to focus on using the weapons while safely controlling their horses. Fun fact: a lot of the horse riders were women with moustaches stuck on (they literally did just ask random horse owners) and you can see them in one of the behind the scenes dvd’s.

Every time I see a picture of the Witch King's flail, my mind always jumps to photoshop because of how ridiculous it looks, I just can't believe it at first glance. Especially since everything else looks really good. Only someone like Matt could describe a sharp steel arrowhead stuck 1 to 2 inches into your body or face as "fairly unpleasant" :) Will you ever make something similar to this for the Hobbit trilogy?

While I agree with all of these (especially the flail), I think the explanation for the lack of shield usage by the MOUNTED Rohirrim (emphasis intentional) is actually a safety reason. To put it simply, they used about 200 volunteer horse enthusiasts (providing their own horses) to film the particular scene in question and only had 2 days to do it. (Keep in mind that all of this was new to both riders and horses). It was dangerous enough to get all of those riders to safely charge in a group, it would have presumably been even worse to then impair their control of their horse by making them hold something else in their rein hand with hardly any time to practice it. I agree it would have been awesome to see them behaving more authentically like historical cavalry but I think this is the (admittedly sensible) reason why that particular decision was made.

Originally, weta, the people who made the arms and armour among many other things, designed the witch King's flail to be usable, it was Peter Jackson who wanted it larger and just 'more imposing'. He had great fun waving it about in the behind the scenes footage

There's footage of Peter Jackson and the film crew essentially laughing about how ridiculous the Witch Kings flail is 😂 its great!

You can’t criticise LOTR, it’s flawless! That’s heresy! How dare you! It’s treason then. Dew it. I am the senate. Now there are two of them. Have you ever heard the tragedy of..... what was I doing again?

When you read the comment section, you realize how much the original LOTR movie trilogy is well made: even the most nitpicky people struggle to find weapon designs to rant about.

The Witch King originally had a way smaller flail - Peter Jackson just wanted it to be massive for the cinema and let the flail grow a few times until he was satisfied - watch the making of :)

The elven arrowheads he shows are specifically used by the galadhrim, and they're shaped like mallorn leaves. If you read the design notes for the props they wanted all the material culture of the galadhrim to be derived from that tree as it is unique/sacred to lothlorien. That's why their armour is shaped like leaves also, and their mallorn bows have vine details on them too

I've always loved Anduril from the movies. They movie version is almost exactly as i pictured the sword when i read the books the first time.

What about elven shields and swords shown in the beginning of the first film?

Agree with the shields thing,most annoying thing is Boromir carries that shield every scene except the one where he decides to mug frodo for the ring and then gets filled with arrows ........

In defense of sub-optimal equipment for war: Neither the Men of Rhun nor the Elves of Lorien were expecting a martial engagement. The Men of Rhun were marching towards an allied nation for a muster, so it makes sense for them to carry multiple configurations of weaponry from home that they're used to fighting with, so that they can be deployed flexibly when they actually march to war. The Elves were on patrol around their homeland, with no known active armies nearby. Their most menacing threat would likely be spy-critters like Saruman's army of Crebain. As you noted, the arrows depicted in that scene would have been the perfect weapons to deal with such an enemy. This interpretation, while generous, gets extra awesome points for emphasizing the elves' keen eyes, as no ordinary archer could spot such cunning little foes reliably enough to meaningfully impact the Enemy's intelligence gathering.

Nobody: Witch king of Angbar: “yeah, I like to fight with a car engine attached to a chain.”

Wow, I'm surprised Gimli's giant axe didn't make the list!

From the Lord of the Rings: Arms and Armies book, the reason why the likes are shaped that way is to help push the ladders up onto the wall

Floppiness seconded! We use heavily padded pikes with a PVC or bamboo shaft in re-enactment fights and boy are they floppy. And heavy. :D The weight and the floppiness makes them extremely hard to use, as not only are you thrusting with something heavy you also have to constantly correct for the pikes flopping around. Add to that that the pikes are usually the first to make contact, have to work throughout the encounter, and are the first to be "headhunted" by opposing archers, javelin throwers and other pikemen. Pike wielders are absolutely trashed after even short encounters.