How long did it take for Gondor to call for aid?
The scene never fails to give me chills. In the final installment of the beloved film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, the kingdom of Gondor uses a series of beacons to signal to a neighboring kingdom called Rohan for aid in battle. To do this, a singular beacon is lit which signals for a subsequent beacon to be lit several miles away. This process repeats for hundreds of miles until the final beacon is close enough to be seen by those in Rohan. As soon as the first beacon is lit, the iconic music of Howard Shore whisks you away above the clouds and across the mountainside with a soaring soundtrack in combination with a series of sweeping aerial shots. When reading the book, just a few lines are dedicated to noticing and explaining the beacon system, but I am thankful that director Peter Jackson and his team decided to spend just a few more seconds on this scene. The system itself is ingenious, yet at the same time quite elegant. I suppose you cannot expect anything less from the civilization that created the Argonath, and the city of Minas Tirith.
However, the usage of beacons as a form of urgent communication is not unique to Tolkien. Ancient Chinese, Greek, and Byzantine civilizations (among others) each have been known to use a series of beacons to warn of attacks. Even in the more recent history of the United States, the Revolutionary War utilized this form of communication with the infamous “one if by land two if by sea” strategy. Optical communication is ideal in urgent situations because nothing travels faster than the speed of light. We still use forms of optical communication for anything as rudimentary as a lighthouse to something more complex like using satellites to communicate from our electronic devices.
If optical communication has been, and continues to be the fastest way to spread ideas, my question is this: when Gondor lit the beacons at the formidable end of Third Age of Middle Earth, how long did it take to hear Gondor’s cry for help from Edoras, the capital of Rohan?
If I am fascinated by this system, I am sure there are others asking similar questions. I assume I am not the first to attack this problem, and I assume that I also won’t be the last.
“The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.” — Book 5, Chapter 1 in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Before concerning ourselves with time, let’s first examine the space that we are working with. Figure 1 is a map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor, drawn by Tolkien himself. The markers in red represent the locations and names of each of the beacons, while the green markers represent the origin and destination locations: Minas Tirith of Gondor and Edoras of Rohan. The system officially originates at Amon Dîn, and travels westward to Eilenach, Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon (a.k.a. Minrimmon), Calenhad, and the Halifirien.
Using the scale provided in Figure 1, several measurements were made to determine the distance between Minas Tirith and Edoras as well as relative distances between Minas Tirith and the first beacon, the space between each of the beacons, and the distance between the final beacon and Edoras. Figure 2 shows a simplified map of the route along with these mile measurements. The total distance between the two cities is approximately 340 miles.
To put things into perspective, Gandalf is quoted in the film adaptation as saying that the trip from Edoras to Minas Tirith is “a three day’s journey — as the Nazgul flies.” And at the very end of Book 3, Gandalf tells Pippin that the same journey will take two days on their trusty steed, Shadowfax. So, without the beacons, any urgent call for help between the two capitals would take 2–3 days.
When it comes to starting the signal, Tolkien does not provide much information. Figure 2 demonstrates that there are about 40 miles between the city of Minas Tirith and Amon Dîn. To bridge this gap, the film adaptation proposed that there is a beacon inside the city of Minas Tirith that signals the lighting of Amon Dîn, however Tolkien only names seven beacons, the first being Amon Dîn.
If we consider that there is a “starter beacon” in the city, then the amount of time that it would take to start the signal is simply a matter of minutes. All the steward has to do is call for the nearby city beacon to be lit. However, if the first beacon truly is Amon Dîn, then a messenger on horseback would need to relay the orders of the steward to the soldiers atop Amon Dîn. How long would that take? After rounding the stats from Wikipedia, the average horse can walk at about 5 miles/hour, trot at about 10 miles/hour and gallop at up to 30 miles/hour. I am assuming that for a civilization that relies on horses for communication, transportation, and conflict, these horses must have great endurance and speed. If Amon Dîn is located 40 miles from Minas Tirith, and rests at a high elevation, I would estimate the journey taking about 3–4 hours.
Now, let’s move on to the time that it takes to notice and light the beacons. At the very beginning of Book 5, Tolkien writes:
“The dark world was rushing by and the wind sang loudly in his ears. He could see nothing but the wheeling stars…”
By this account, I can assume two things about the night the beacons were lit: it was dark, and it was clear. Wikipedia claims that on crisp clear days like the one described by Pippin, visibility can be as far as 150 miles! This information is consolation that when looking out atop a mountain peak, being able to see a large fire 30–40 miles away is easily plausible.
Another element that we do not need to worry about in this analysis is taking into account the time it takes for the light to travel from one beacon to the next. For context, light travels at a speed of 3x10⁸ meters/second (670 million miles/hour), so it would only take about 0.1 milliseconds for light to travel 20 miles.
Armed with the assumption that we can ignore the speed of light, and that there is enough visibility to see the beacons, there is no physics or complicated math to consider. The only thing that takes time now is human behavior.
I assume that at each beacon, at least one soldier is keeping watch at all times. As a result, I would posit that it would take on the order of 10 seconds for a soldier to notice that the preceding beacon has been lit and therefore conclude that they need to act to light their own beacon. It would then take approximately 1 minute to locate and pour the fuel over the wood. I would also estimate that it would take about 2 minutes to ignite the beacon and wait for the beacon to become bright enough to be seen from the next location. In summary, the entire process from when the previous beacon was sufficiently ignited to the current beacon becoming sufficiently ignited could be approximated to about 3 minutes . There are seven beacons, therefore this transition process will happen six times: 6x3=18 minutes between the beacons of Amon Dîn and Halifirien (157 miles).
The final leg of the journey is from Halifirien to Edoras (146 miles). The reason why the final jump is so long is due to the fact that Halifirien marks the extent of the realm of Gondor. Gondor simply could not get any closer to Edoras without building in Rohan. As mentioned before, ideal conditions would theoretically allow visibility for up to 150 miles. If this is the case, the fire from Halifirien could be seen in Rohan, and the King of Rohan would be notified in a matter of minutes. This is the assumption that Peter Jackson and his team made for the film adaptation. However, I highly doubt that the beacon at Halifirien is large enough to be noticeable at that distance. It is most likely that a horseback messenger is required to ride to Edoras in order to deliver the message to the King. Considering the fact that Gondor set up their beacons at 20–30 mile intervals, I am going to assume that this is the ideal distance to notice the flames of the previous beacon while still keeping as much distance as possible. As a result, I am going to propose that the horseback messenger will be required to ride approximately 120 miles to Edoras. Referring back to the approximated horse speeds from Wikipedia, an urgent journey like this could take anywhere from 6–12 hours.
So, in total, how long would it take to signal Rohan?
If you need to send a messenger to start and receive the signal, the overwhelming majority of the time is spent traveling on horseback. In total, the signal would take 9–16 hours. In other words, when inspired by urgency and handled by dedicated soldiers: the message would take about a day to reach the ears of the King of Rohan. The message would travel at the equivalent of 20–30 miles/hour, or at the pace of a gallop the entire 340 miles. I would say that considering the standards of the time, this speed would be considered relatively fast. Any Gondor or Rohan soldier could never imagine maintaining a speed like that for such a long journey.
However, if Rohan and Gondor were able to think about the start and end process of the signal system as well as they thought about the signal system itself then the message could be relayed in as little as 3 minutes x 8 steps = 24 minutes, that is the equivalent of traveling at 850 miles/hour!
Regardless of how long the beacon signal takes, I am still amazed at the concept. Beyond the concept of hastening a signal across borders, the beacon system also provides a means of communication that does not require an immense amount of resources or riders. Especially during a time of war, having a simple yet effective system in place that keeps soldiers out of harm’s way and communicates a message without words is incredibly valuable. Not to mention, literally reigniting old alliances and spreading a message of hope across your land is the type of beautiful imagery that reminds us of the genius of Tolkien.
“Hope is kindled.”
— Gandalf, The Return of the King (2003)
