Some of you
have heard the name Grond. For those three people left in the world that hasn’t
seen the Return of the King, then you have now met one version of the weapons
known as Grond. This is the massive flaming wolf headed battering ram that
Sauron’s army of orcs used to smash the magic gates once built by an ancient
race of men with elven blood and long lives. That’s a mouthful. Throughout the
thousands of years of history in Middle-Earth, Grond has taken a few forms that
are suspected to be designs of Sauron’s masterful engineering and magic.
During the
time of the Return of the King, Grond was a one hundred foot battering ram that
stood sixty feet tall. The head was forged from black iron. In the movie, the
mouth was filled with fire, but I don’t believe Tolkien envisioned it that way.
About the only use fire would have coming from the mouth is intimidation.
Tolkien was an experienced military man who served during World War 1, and
although the orcs are a flashy raging mass of unthinking hate, they weren’t
unorganized when directed by Sauron’s generals like Gothmog. I would assume
that just the sheer size would be enough to scare the Gondorians. Hauling fuel
for the fire would be an unnecessary additional resource to be carried across rivers
and mountains all the way from Mordor. That said, it did add some nice
cinematography for the film so it got two thumbs up from me, no matter how
impractical it was.
