The Battle of the Camp was a battle between Gondorian forces and an alliance of Wainriders and Haradrim.

PreludeEdit

In TA 1945, the Wainrider people from the east made an alliance with the Haradrim, and a dual attack on Ithilien was launched. While the Wainriders attacked Ithilien from the north, the armies of the Haradrim crossed the Poros and invaded southern Ithilien.

The battleEdit

The northern assault of the Wainriders was met by the King of Gondor himself, Ondoher, with his two sons Artamir and Faramir. The Easterlings swept through Gondor's defence, cutting down the King and his heirs and routing his army. Their victory complete, and Gondor defenceless before them, the Wainriders paused in north Ithilien to celebrate their conquest.

Their allies in the south had met with much less success. The Gondorian Captain Eärnil had led Gondor's inferior Southern Army to victory over the Haradrim, destroying their army in South Ithilien, to the north of the Poros. After his victory, Eärnil turned north.

The feasting Wainriders suddenly found their success reversed, as Eärnil appeared with his Southern Army, reinforced by fleeing members of Ondoher's defeated northern troops. Eärnil's army descended on the unprepared Wainriders, driving many of them into the swamplands of the Dead Marshes. That eastern people, for so long a dreaded enemy of Gondor, never marched against Gondor again. The battle was named after where it had taken place: the Battle of the Camp.

AftermathEdit

Because there was no heir apparent to the throne, Ondoher and his sons having been killed in the battle, Eärnil was made King. He was a distant relative of Ondoher, and could trace his lineage back to Elendil and Anárion of old.

Earnil's victory is counted as one of the biggest military successes in the history of middle earth. With a numerically inferior army than the one that went north, Earnil was able to totally rout the entire allied armies of Harad and Khand-a feat that would not be duplicated until the end of the third age at the battle of the pelennor fields. The subsequent promotion of Earnil to the throne of Gondor gave the southern Dunedain a boost to moral that had been needed since their many losses during the plague and the invasions that followed. It also helped improve relations with the northern kingdom of Arnor. Earnil's promise of support to Arnor reforged ties that had been hanging by a thread for several centuries. The stunning success north of the Poros had positive repurcussions throughout the free peoples of middle earth.

AppearancesEdit

• The Silmarillion