I know it's not a historical work, but I was a curious how realistic the scene in Lord of the Rings was when King Theoden at Helm's Deep ordered that anyone fit to hold a sword was to be sent to the armory, and we see everyone from old men to young boys being fitted with chain mail, helmets, and spears, swords, axes; anything that could be scraped up. Was that a thing that just happened? Were peasant militias common and if they were what would they realistically have been armed with?