Bows

[Sir Langon]

Ok, as with the Sword section, I will have to have several posts in this thread to cover all the types of medieval bows.

The bow I will cover this week is the Short Bow.

The short bow has been used since its invention in ancient times and it was in use worldwide for many millenia. Some of the most early users of bows were the Egyptians, Mayans, and Native Americans. These different peoples used these weapons to hunt food and not until later was the bow discovered to be an invaluable weapon when fighting an enemy. Out of all of these early archers, the Mayan archers were the most feared as they used poisoned arrows and were extremely accurate in their jungle homeland. In Greek history, the Trojans were said to have the finest archers in the world and if the walls of Troy were defended by these archers, no one could take the city. While many peoples used bows in war, the Native Americans are believed to be the first and as such many believe that they invented the barbed arrow because this arrow was hard to draw out of the body and therefore if the arrow didn't kill, it was a hindrance. After several hundred years people realized that mounted archers could devastate armies by riding in , shooting, and drawing out quickly. The most noted of horse archers were the Mongols who, under the guidance of Genghis Khan, were able to conquer most of the known world.

In LotR every race except the Dwarves used bows. Though the deadliest by war were the Elves because of their keen sight, but they most often used the longbow. The Bow was used in every single battle in all of Tolkiens books.
Now, just like the Mongols, the Rohirrim (armed with short bows) were excellent horse archers and during the Battle of Helm's Deep, a party of riders 'taught the orcs not to carry torches'. Hobbits also used short bows, most likely due to their stature. While they mostly used them for hunting, and group of Hobbit archers fought for the Dunedain during the Rise of Angmar and they also used bows to retake the Shire from Saruman and the Ruffians. It can also be assumed that they used short bows to defeat the Goblin army at the Battle of Greenfields and to drive away the wolves during the fell winter.
Most of the evil forces, besides the large Uruk-hai, used short bows; most notably the Goblins who would need to use shout bows while climbing and scampering along paths. The orcs of Mordor also used short bows during their warfare, but as orcs weren't particularly skillful they couldn't get much range.
In the movies, Aragorn is seen using a short bow in Moria to shoot goblins, but he only gets off a few shots. It can be assumed however that he was a good shot with a bow.

As with all of the weapons, feel free to post any questions.

[Sir Langon]

The new bow that I will cover is the longbow.

The longbow, while made famous by the English, was in use far longer than that as it was used by the ancient Nubians who lived south of Egypt. The longbow has no recurve and is especially made for the archer that will use it as they are made to be roughly the height of the person using it. The longbow has been used for hunting and for warfare throughout the centuries; however, it's main purpose was not for straight shots at an enemy. The use of the bow was primarily to be aimed high into the sky so that it would fall into the enemy on its descent and therefore pierce any armour the person was wearing. While not seemingly effective, the English used this technique with large numbers of archers and with the tactic, they were able to defeat many of the best French knights.

In LotR the main users of longbows were the Gondorians and Lorien elves (the Mirkwood elves needed smaller bows for use in the trees). It can be well noted that in the movies many an armoured orc fell to an arrow protruding from its armour because of the longbow's piercing ability. As can be noted, Faramir and his Rangers used longbows during the ambush on the Haradhrim to a devastating effect. If they had been using smaller bows, chances are that unless one was high up, none of the Haradhrim on the Mumak would have been killed.

[Sir Langon]

I know it's been quite some time since I updated this section, but I've been quite busy for a while now; however, I will now cover the crossbow.

The crossbow was actually invented by the Chinese and was called the Chu-ku-nu, or something to that effect, and was actually just a repeating bow as it shot regular arrows. However, in Europe, the tension on the bowstring was increased greatly and instead of rapidly firing arrows, they began shooting heavy, armor-piercing bolts that wouldn't break under such great tension. These revolutionary weapons were the bane of many armor-bound knights because the bolt fired with such power that it smashed through almost any armor. With the crossbow came the first sharpshooters. This was because the crossbow, unlike regular bows, have a set poundage and can be aimed effectively, making any normal peasant a match for a knight. Unfortunately, the heavy poundage on the crossbow made reloading it a nightmare and many times the wielder of a crossbow would have to use the crossbow itself as a weapon.

In LotR, the crossbow is only seen in the movies, and only at the Battle for Helm's Deep. This was probably because PJ wanted the Uruk-hai of Saruman to be seen as a more advanced force. These uruk-hai were able, because of their brute strength, to effectively utilize the power of the crossbow by making the fire rate only slightly lower than a regular bow. Also utilizing their strength, blades were attached to the stock so that the uruk could club his enemy to death. Another thing that made the crossbow the choice ranged weapon of the uruks is that it requires relatively little intelligence and training to use such a weapon which suited the uruks just fine.