Tolkien's Battles

[littlemanpoet]

The Battle of Five Armies
The Battle of Helm's Deep
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
The Battle before the Teeth of Mordor
The Battle of Bywater
...and a bunch in the Silm to boot.

This is about the pitched battles, not the skirmishes with wargs and goblins and orcs and what-not.

How did Tolkien do? Were his battles realistic? Could he have done better? How? What authors have written better battles? What did they do to make their battles better?

We could consider his narrative purposes in each battle.

I've written just one battle scene for a humble little mega-opus I've been writing for years and years. I was confronted with the horrendous task of describing the over-arching sweep of events that made the battle's actions and turning points, while not forgetting the individual heros and heroines. I can't say that I necessarily did a great job, maybe not bad, either, but this is what Tolkien was confronted with: Did he portray enough realism to make the battle seem what he imagined it to be while telling a great story that the reader could enjoy through the eyes of one or more of the protagonists?

Which battles were better? Worse? Were they all great? Did they all stink?

I've read Stephen Lawhead's pitched battles in his Arthur and Albion series; I can't say that he did any better than Tolkien. What authors can you compare to JRRT?