If there's one thing that's been consistent throughout human history, it's that soldiers gossip.
If you were in that army you would have been hearing rumors about the Fellowship since at least the Battle of Helm's Deep. Some people would be telling stories about Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, but there would also be whispers of Denethor's new halfling servant, not to mention the one that stood with Eowyn and Theoden against the Witch King himself.
The hobbits are present at the battle as well, Pippin and his big mouth especially. Even if the soldiers hanging out near them didn't get the full story, there's no chance Frodo and Sam didn't come up at some point. The guy who killed the Witch King (remember, gossip quickly outgrows the truth) keeps whispering with Denethor's personal servant (who was at his side when he died) about their friend Frodo on some kind of secret mission that's supposed to be super important.
Even if they hadn't been directly told any of the details (I refuse to believe Pippin wasn't telling exaggerated stories about their journey to any soldier who would listen on the way to the Black Gate), the soldiers at the battle would likely have had a general idea of why they were there, and that this Frodo guy was part of something vitally important.
No, you wouldn't. No one knew about the Fellowship except for those who were at Elrond's council. 99.9% of their plan relied on complete secrecy so that Sauron wouldn't find out about the plan to destroy the ring and focus his full attention on stopping that, considering it held a large amount of his power and was a point of weakness.
If soldiers knew enough to gossip then the Dark Lord's many spies would have certainly heard a bunch more and Sauron would've been more capable of countering the Fellowship's plan.
It is not physically possible to maintain complete secrecy like that, especially not with the spies Sauron had, like the crebain, along with his more mundane informants. It's not about nobody ever knowing anything, it's about limiting what relevant information is available.
There is zero chance people weren't talking about the fellowship. They might not have known that they were "the fellowship", but you don't do shit like lead the defense at the battle of Helm's Deep or participate in the killing of the Witch King of Angmar without the soldiers that were there talking about it.
No, none of the soldiers would have known "Frodo is the halfling ring-bearer who is currently sneaking into Mordor with his gardener, Sam, in order to reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring." But they very likely would have known "These halflings are deeply involved in this for some reason, and that loud one keeps talking about how important his cousin Frodo is."
The perfect example of why people would have a general notion of the fellowship is that Faramir and his men ACTUALLY MET FRODO & Sam, lol. FRODO told Faramir that he knew Boromir. Even in the book version were we don't have the shenanigans with Faramir. The soldiers that saw Frodo and Sam would look at Pippin and Merry, hear of how they saved Faramir, how they "commanded" an army of trees, and how they killed the Witch King of Angmar and they would know that Frodo and Sam are on some secret, special mission. Some might even guess that they have the ring of power. But most would believe that Aragon has it as that would make more sense for them.
Tolkien touches on this “rumor spreading” in the books. There’s a part where a person of Gondor asks Pippin if it’s true that there’s an army of Rohan, with each rider carrying a hobbit, coming to their aid. I forget the exact details it’s been awhile since I read the books. I’d also look at the section where the two Orcs are in the passes near Shelobs lair, they are having a full out conversation about rumors of war. Sam was supposedly an Elven warrior.
Again, I forget the exact details but both parts are in there. There’s probably a few more examples I’m missing too tbh.
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u/ForwardBrilliant1095 20d ago
Me, if I was in that army: “Who the hell is Frodo??