thelioninmybed:

Oooh, that’s a big question! Any specific cultural groups you were hoping for a breakdown of? 

Tolkien very elegantly skims over describing much of the nitty gritty of combat, even in his more fleshed out works like LotR. 

Amongst the elves, the Teleri were known as Bow Elves, the Vanyar were Spear Elves and the Noldor were the Sword Elves, though we’re not told much about the specifics of the actual weapons (’glittered like ice’ and ‘though ever black its edges shone with pale fire’ aren’t very helpful descriptors). We also know that in Beleriand the Noldor wore mail but, since that’s been true since 4BC right through to the 17th century, it doesn’t narrow things down much. 

Given Tolkien was inspired by early Germanic literature, the Kalevala and Beowulf, you’re going to want to look at the fighting styles common to the iron age. The helmet below was taken from the Anglo Saxon burial mounds at Sutton Hoo and you’ll note the dragon eyebrows and maskishness are likely the kind of shit he was trying to evoke with the Dragonhelm of Dor-Lomin. 

Here’s a quick breakdown I googled up of the kind of kit one would expect a warrior of that period, insofar as it’s a determinate period, to have.

And here’s some more detail on iron age sword design – skip to the last entry because this next quote sounds preeetty relevant to the Noldor; ‘Almost all swords dating between 400 and 700 have gold covered hilts, and many have gems set into them, showing their importance in status and prestige. However, “rich jewellers’ work though these hilts were, the swords’ real value lay in their blades, which were by their nature beautiful and, by all accounts, most efficient too. [Oakeshott 1960:92]’

And this article has a breakdown of exchanges from the Viking sagas plus some attempts at recreating them. The attempts aren’t very good – I assume they’re re-enactors rather than martial artists – and the editing is unhelpful, but this might give an idea of the techniques the characters would use. 

Unlike Eastern martial arts and HEMA, where we have actual manuals designed to teach combat techniques to students, reconstructing from the sagas may well be as realistic as trying to recreate John Wick’s fighting style a thousand years from now, but the Silmarillion isn’t much interested in realistic combat either – see The Leap of Beren – so this could be a decent basis.

My own experience fighting hand to hand is with much later (Renaissance) styles but if you want some general advice on how to use a sword (or how to write someone using one) then I can certainly provide.