Mumakil

From within the jungle of Far Harad, the mumak emerged. To most cultures, the mumakil, or oliphaunts, were creatures of legend, as fabulous and fearsome as dragons, and to them were ascribed all kinds of strange powers. Oliphaunt was another name for them given to them by the Hobbits. Mumak resemble elephants, except they have four tusks, instead of two.



Physical Attributes
No complete mumak skeleton has ever been found, but accounts found in both the Red Book of Westmarch and in other scrolls suggest that they stood between fifty and one hundred feet tall, with four huge tusks and two smaller ones to each side of the mouth. When charging into battle, they bellowed and screeched at great volume, and the advent of their coming was preceded by a thunderous din that shook the very earth.

Outfitting
Virtually nothing is known about how the Haradrim managed to attach the great bamboo and canvas war harness to its back: presumably they were able to coerce it into kneeling or lying down so that a team could haul the huge framework into place, tying it under the belly of the beast. Hanging from the harness were ropes that the Haradrim used to climb up into the frame and take up their positions on the platforms. Their elevated position allowed them to target an otherwise hidden enemy and gave their arrows and spears a greater range. Gondorian folklore of the time maintains that a shaman, who steered the mumak using long reins, was the means by which the beast was tamed in the first place. Long banners were hung by the frame, their red and black colors depicting the Eye of Mordor and the snake of the east.

Overview
In the Third Age of the Sun in South Harad, there lived beasts of vast bulk that are thought to be ancestors of elephants. Yet the elephants that now inhabit the world are much smaller in size and might than their great ancestors. According to The Red Book they were between 50 and 100 feet (15 and 30 meters) tall with four gigantic tusks and two lesser ones in the face. The Haradrim often used war paint on their mûmakil, to make them more fearsome. The war paint used could differ from the individual Haradrim tribes. In the years of the War of the Ring, the fierce warriors of Harad came north to Gondor at the call of Sauron, and with their legions they brought the great mûmak, which they used as beasts of war. The mûmak were harnessed with the gear of war: red banners, bands and trappings of gold and brass, and on their backs great war towers from which archers and spearmen fought. They had a natural bloodlust, and many foes were crushed beneath their feet. With their trunks they struck down many foes and their tusks were red with the blood of enemies. They could not be fought effectively by mounted men, for horses refused to go near them, nor by footmen who were quickly crushed or shot from above. In war they would frequently stand as towers that could not be captured; shield walls broke before them and armies were routed.

These thick-skinned beasts were almost invulnerable to arrows; only in their eyes could mûmak be blinded or even killed by arrows released with great force. When blinded they went into a rage of pain, often destroying masters and foes alike in their rampages. The tendons in their legs seem to be a vulnerable point however, as several had been taken down by being hamstrung during the battle of the Pelennor Fields. Several Haradrim tribes seem to have noticed this weakness, as evidenced by the bands of bamboo spikes seen on several mumak during the battle.

The Name Oliphaunt
The word Oliphaunt is a variant spelling of the archaic word oliphant meaning "elephant", "ivory", "elephant-tusk", "musical horn made of an elephant tusk", or "a musical instrument resembling such a horn". It appears in Middle English as olifant or olifaunt, and was borrowed from Medieval French olifanz. The French word owes something to both Old High German olbenta "camel", and to Latin elephantus "elephant", a word of Greek origin. OHG olbenta is a word of old Germanic origin; cf. Gothic ulbandus also meaning "camel". But the form of the OHG and Gothic words suggests it is also a borrowing, perhaps indeed directly or indirectly from Greek elephas "ελεφας" Greek for ivory, though apparently with some confusion as to the animal the word referred to. The word survives as the surname Oliphant found throughout the English speaking world.

The most famous use of the oliphant is in The Song of Roland "The oliphant is set to Roland's Lips;" Roland fails to call for help at the Battle of Roncevaux in 778 until it is too late for him and his comrades. The oliphant is echoed in The Lord of the Rings by Boromir's horn and counterpoised by Helm's horn and the horns of Buckland. In Middle-earth an oliphaunt was called a mûmak (plural mûmakil) by the Men of Gondor. The word "Oliphaunt" is only used by hobbits.

Culture and Movements
Among the tribes of Haradrim, a mumak would have been, literally, a huge status symbol, and there would have been great competition among the tribes to possess one; it is likely that this competition led to frequent tribal wars. The mumakil would have moved with the tribes as they traveled across the desert, which would have been quite often; something as big as a mumak would soon have exhausted the available resources. A dead mumak was almost as valuable as a living one, as it would have provided the tribe with a mountain of resources: tusks, bone, hide, dyes, sinew and meat that could be salted, keeping the tribe in food for months.

Methods of Killing Mumak
It is said that a mumak could be killed with a single shot to the eye; otherwise it was able to withstand an onslaught against its thick hide before eventually falling. The archers of the Morthond vale killed several in the battle of the Pelennor field, and few mumakil were ever again seen in the fertile lands of Middle-earth.

The Poem
Oliphaunt is also the title of a short comic poem about the beast quoted by the hobbit Samwise Gamgee, based on traditional bestiary lore.


 * Oliphaunt


 * Grey as a mouse


 * Big as a house


 * Nose like a snake


 * I make the earth shake


 * As I tramp through the grass


 * Trees crack as I pass


 * With horns in my mouth


 * I walk in the South


 * Flapping big ears


 * Beyond count of years


 * I stump round and round


 * Never lie on the ground


 * Not even to die


 * Oliphaunt am I


 * Biggest of all


 * Huge, old, and tall


 * If ever you'd met me


 * You wouldn't forget me


 * If you never do


 * You won't think I'm true


 * But old Oliphaunt am I


 * And I never lie

Video games
In Return of the King's Pelennor Fields level, you have to kill a multitude of mûmakil (depending on how much you are able to damage the Witch-king each round). They cannot be damaged by melee means, and have to be taken out with arrows or thrown spears. There is also one featured in the Southern Gate level. In Battle for Middle Earth 1 & 2 Mordor can build 'Mûmakil'. They can naturally take a lot of damage from melee damage, and are more damaged from arrows and receive heavy damage from fire. They can use the 'Trample' attack and carry units inside/on top of them.

In The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, three oliphaunts must be killed before they reach the defense zone. In the Pelennor Fields level of the War of the Ring campaign, they can be killed easily with a catapult or by sabotage. They can be controlled on the Rise of Sauron level Weathertop or in the Pelennor Fields level (in Instant action). In The Lord of the Rings:The Third Age,Mumakil are enemies in Pelennor Fields in Good Mode and are playable in Pelennor Fields Evil Mode.

Uncanonical to Lord of the Rings, the game Rome: Total War includes a cheat entered as "oliphaunt," which creates a unit of "Yubtseb Elephants," massive elephants who greatly resemble Mumakil. Their name is "Best Buy" spelled backwards, and are said to be the offspring of the fictional god "G'nitek'ram, The God of Shiny Objects Man Does Not Need but Desires Anyway," G'nitek'ram being "marketing" spelled backwards. This is a lash at the marketing-based society we live in today.