As a general rule, Tolkien's writing style is of a poetic nature, influenced by the sagas that he studied as a linquist and which, to a large degree, obviously inspired his fantastical world. Poetic language tends to be romantic: emphasizing the glory of elements and characters in the story, in this case the bulk of the Mumak, or even having the lightly-armed Rangers closing with more heavily-armed infantry and doing well. In short, his poetic characters are heroes, and heroes are a cut above most everybody else.

Poetic writing is opposed to gritty writing in which realism is taken often to an over-extreme (to the point of being actually unrealistic). In gritty writing, there are no heroes, just people, and if anything separates two opponents or determines the outcome of a fight, it will be either numbers or sheer dumb luck. Obviously the gritty style is one extreme and the poetic style another, and a continuum exists in-between, but Tolkien tends to gravitate toward the poetic form, especially in battle, and in describing his heroes, mighty and noble captains in arms, in this case Faramir.

It is of note that when Hobbits are involved, Tolkien generally shifts to a less poetic (and less fantastical) world. While not even with the Hobbits is Tolkien's style ever gritty, they are nonetheless more realistic. It is interesting that this particular battle scene is still fairly poetic, especially with the description of the Oliphaunt (spelling it like that is itself a poetic device), even though there are Hobbits watching. Nonetheless, although watching, they are not participating, so it is not as gritty as parts of the Battle of the Pellenor Fields, say (though parts of it are much more poetic than this, particularly those parts where Merry is just a sack on *ahem* Dernhelm's horse).