Swarming with orcs?


When Gandalf breaks the bridge in half and goes down along with the balrog, is there no other way of getting across the bridge and getting to where the fellowship exited the mines?

When the fellowship exit the mines, boromir says something like "Aragorn, give them some time ffs" and Aragorn responds with "by nightfall this lands will be swarming with orcs"

So my question is how would orcs follow them and hence swarm those lands, when the bridge is dead and there is no way to cross it? Or is there?

reply

There were a lot of Orcs in Moria, and also Trolls and other things. Presumably, they could've fixed the gap in the Bridge or created other ways across. The whole point of the bridge was as a defense against invasion, so I can't imagine there are many, or any, other places to cross the chasm.

So, what Aragorn was saying is that the broken bridge isn't what was holding the Orcs back. It was the Sun in the sky that was doing it, and once the Sun set, lots of Orcs would be coming after them, and they can follow by scent, so the Fellowship *needed* to get across the river before sunset.

reply

How would you think they could fix it? With what material? As much we could see there was nothing but stone there. And with stone how could they reconnect the bridge?
And as you said most likely there was not alternative route due to that bridge being for defense purposes.

So if there was no other routes and no materials to reconnect the bridge with, that leads to my original question again, how could orcs follow them and hence swarm those lands?

reply

We don't know that there weren't other ways to cross the chasm farther away from the East Gate. The goblins could have also rigged a rope bridge as a temporary measure. But Tuor7 is right; it was mostly because the goblins refused to come out until sunset that gave the Fellowship some time.

"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella

reply

Alex, in the book Tolkien mentions that some of the trolls were carrying huge slabs which they laid down across a flaming area to allow passage through. They stopped when the Balrog showed up.

There were definitely materials in Moria that could've been used as a stop-gap measure to allow passage across the chasm. The Bridge, I assume, wasn't supposed to be a passive defense: as envisioned, those crossing it would be doing so under Dwarven opposition. Without any opposition, it's just a matter of time and effort. There would've been a *lot* of effort to patch-up a way to get across the chasm.

reply

I see now, thanks.
I havent read The LOTR books but I have read the Hobbit so I know with how much details Tolkien wrote, and this with trolls carring whatnot and having materials makes a lot of sense.
While writing this topic's original question I had in my mind also that goblins/orcs weren't nearly as intelligent and skilled builders as dwarfs were and that got me thinking how they would not be able to repair the bridge or make an alternative route with some materials they had. But then I remembered in the Hobbit how goblins actually had this giant lair that they built inside a mountain where The Gobling King lived and then I was like, yea maybe they were not actually that dumb to reconnect the bridge or find another route to the East Gate.

reply

Goblins (Orcs) are actually pretty clever at building things (some of them are, anyway). They're not as good as the Dwarves, but they're pretty good. This is indeed mentioned in the chapter in the Hobbit where they are captured by the Goblins.

reply

@ Alex_RM7

Orcs don't need anything to make a "bridge" All they need are each other. They can use each others bodies overlapping to get across. Just like they "swarmed" off of the great pillars in Moria whilst running after the Fellowship..

reply