Who were the Five Armies in The Hobbit? - Tolkien Lore

Today we look into the simple question: who were the Five Armies in The Hobbit book, that fought in the Battle of Five Armies at the end? Four are easy to guess, but what could be the fifth army?

We look into what is written in the book and how things were different in early versions of The Hobbit, that Tolkien wrote.

► Disclaimer:
I have permission of the artists to use their art works.

► Artwork and special thanks to:

► Sources:
The Lord of The Rings (1954-1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion (1977)
The Hobbit (1937; 1951)
Unfinished Tales (1980)
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
The Book of Lost Tales Part Two (1984)
The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
History of the Hobbit (2007)
The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Maps:
Amazon (John Howe)
Edited by: Murdo
Aman map by ThePhilosophersGames

► Mistakes:
-

► Playlists:
If you are interested in Tolkien's legendary fantasy Epic The Lord of the Rings and his related works, here some recommendations:

► Time Codes:
Intro - 0:00

► Social Media:
The Philosopher's Games / TPhGames / TPhLore aka Chris

► Of Games and Rings Podcast:

#Tolkien #Lore #TheHobbit

[ThePhilosophersGames]

I hope you found the video interesting. What was your guess what the fifth army in the battle of Five Armies was?

Also thank you to the artists, for allowing me to use their art works in my video (links to their galleries are in the description):
Kimberly80
Ted Nasmith
Pete Amachree
Laura Tolton

[raremusic]

Nice to see you again :) i'm always here for more Tolkien stuff

[otwk]

Interesting video, I like that you (seemingly) made this just to clear up a small error :)

I think I had heard of the fact before that the battle was supposed to happen in the Anduin vale, but it was nice to hear about it in more depth. Also, my main takeaway from this is that the dancing bears were right under our noses all along xD

[muddlewait]

Good to see another video from you! Very interesting. I had heard for a long time that Smaug was the Fifth Army, but I can’t remember where.

[istari]

The History of the Hobbit is next up on my reading list; I expect it will be fascinating!

[DaBIONICLEFan]

Nice to see another video 👍 I knew one of them was wolves, for some reason I thoughts bats might have been one? What degree of agency or sentience do wargs/wolves have that would seperate them from just being grouped as part of the Goblin army?

[Adarkanexi]

I gladly supplied your 100th Like. Hello again, my friend. Glad to see you’re still plugging away. I guess i’m the only person asking these days, but whatever happened with your comparison series of Book vs Movie? Did you abandon it? It just trails off with #25 of Fellowship with the party arriving in Rivendell. I’m a nerd, and a Virgo, so i love detail-oriented minutiae. 🤣

[JoeQuake]

"Bolg of the North is coming, O Dain! ... the bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!" So, we have wargs differentiated from wolves and then lots of bats. Better add two more potential armies to the list. I think that makes it The Battle of Nine Armies. 🙂 p.s. I enjoyed the video. Thanks!

[tsuchan]

It could have been divided into 'The Battle of Nine Armies', if we considered the Orcs of Moria and Orcs of Gundabad as separate armies; and also Thorin's rag-tag army distinct from the Army of dwarves of the Iron Hills.

[reflectiverambling]

This is one of the reasons I love all of you. I never would have given second thought to things like these. I'm too much of a surface level brain it seems. but I love it when people make me go: oh

[Lore]

Clarification of small detail.
Medwed is variation of generic Slavic word "medved", meaning "bear". No special kind, nor honeyeater, just general bear.
You might have confused it because "med" is Slavic "honey".

Nice vid

[lionlord]

This was extremely confusing for me. So what was now the 5 armies again? I myself never understanded how could the "MEN" be considered as one of the armies.

[teeheeteeheeish]

I always assumed there were two armies of orks/goblins. I stand corrected!

[rogerbrownreacts]

What if he counted the Dwarves and men as one Army.

[thebatman]

I always thought the 5 armies were Orcs, goblins, men, dwarves and elfs

[Dinoguy]

The Battle of Multiple Armies just doesn't have the same ring to it

[kingpietro]

its acutally pretty simple you have to look at the commanders

the army of Thorin Oakenshield ( joins after the orcs came out the mountain)
army of iron hill controlled Dáin Ironfoot
army of lake town controlled by bart
the army of goblins with leader azog
and army of elves by leader Thranduil

there you have it thats you're 5 armies

[Enerdhil]

It should be Four Armies. The Orc-Wolf army was one large army that split in two or three places to create a two-front war. Dáin had an army of Dwarves. Bard gad an army of Men. Thranduil had an army of Elves. The Beornings didn't have enough warriors to qualify as an army. The Eagles and Bats were a kind of air force. If you call the Eagles an army, you must also consider the bats an army. Just sayin' ....

[thomasb.anderson]

the five armies are for the hobbit what the two towers are for lotr