Question the first: In the final battle of the 2nd age, before the elves and men engage with the army of orcs and other baddies, what is the word that Elrond says as a sort of call to arms to his people (in the movie, that is)? It sounds like “Elowai!” I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything about what it is or what it means.
Question B: Where were the ringwraiths in this final battle of the 2nd age? According to Wikipedia, the Nazgul first appeared in the year SA 2251, in plenty of time to fight in this battle, and it seems like they would have made a formidable addition to Sauron’s forces. We sure don’t see them in any of the movie flashbacks.
Individually, the Ringwraiths are fairly badass as soldiers go… but this was the Age of Badasses, and nine more on either side would have made very little difference.
Their biggest power is in the fear they inspire in others. And against a poorly-disciplined army (or even more poorly-disciplined civilian population), that can make a huge difference. But against someone who doesn’t fear them, they ain’t all that. Consider how ineffective they were against, say, Farmer Maggot and his dogs. And now look at how disciplined the troops of the Last Alliance were.
Regarding the Nazgûl: the elves don’t fear them at all, because the elves are always in both worlds at the same time, so undead human sorcerers aren’t particularly frightening to them. They’re like, “we SEE you!”
As for the Númenoreans, they are still pretty much the epitome of “powerful dudes” at this point. In much the same way as Aragorn wouldn’t be particularly bothered by the Nazgûl, most of the fighters in the War of the Last Alliance at the Battle of Dagorlad wouldn’t be that troubled.
As to the first question, I cannot answer it, because I’m not at home with the movie. According to this site, Elrond makes two shouted commands: Tangado haid! (Hold positions!) and Leithio i philinn! (Fire arrows!). But that’s the extended version of the movie.
Nitpick. You don’t fire arrows; you shoot arrows. I doubt the word fire would have ever been used in this context before there were firearms. And shooting a gun is obviously based on an arrow metaphor.
Heh, I seem to recall that bothered me in the actual movie, where (I think it was Helm’s Deep) one of the characters actually yells “fire!” when he meant “shoot!”.
It doesn’t bother me nearly as much where it is a “translation” out of Elvish.
Well, I listened again very carefully to Elrond in the battle scene, including trying to read his lips, so I concede that he might have been saying “Tangado haid!” The first part was really muffled and covered up by music and sound effects, but I could sort of see his lips forming those words. I still could not hear it, no matter how hard I tried.
Specifically, Gandalf is talking to Frodo on the day he wakes up, and Frodo has asked Gandalf what happened at the ford. Frodo mentions that he saw a shining figure through his fading sight before he became unconscious, and Gandalf informs him that was Glorfindel as he appears on the other side (in which Frodo was fast becoming immersed, thanks to the wound from the Witch-King’s knife).
And that confrontation probably isn’t even on Glorfindel’s Top Ten list of acts of badassery. It’s certainly far short of his number 1, slaying a balrog (which also killed him in the process, but he got better).
