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85-747: Rohan is a fictional kingdom of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien 's fantasy setting of Middle-earth . Known for its horsemen, the Rohirrim , Rohan provides its ally Gondor with cavalry . Its territory is mainly grassland . The Rohirrim call their land the Mark or the Riddermark, names recalling that of the historical kingdom of Mercia , the region of Western England where Tolkien lived. Tolkien grounded Rohan in elements inspired by Anglo-Saxon tradition, poetry, and linguistics, specifically in its Mercian dialect , in everything but its use of horses. Tolkien used Old English for

170-490: A branch of the lineage of Men. Hobbits were not known to the Ents, but on meeting Merry and Pippin , Treebeard at once worked that people into the list. The concept of the free peoples is shared by Elrond . The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher writes that, in the style of the medieval Great Chain of Being , this list places Men and the other speaking peoples higher than the beasts, birds, and reptiles which he lists next. "Man

255-609: A clumsy conventional sign for chainmail of small rings. The armies of Rohan were largely horsemen. The basic tactical unit was the éored , Old English for "a unit of cavalry, a troop", which at the time of the War of the Ring had a nominal strength of 120 riders. In time of war, every able man was obliged to join the Muster of Rohan. Rohan was bound by the Oath of Éorl to help Gondor in times of peril, and

340-465: A culture based on horses. They use many Old English words related to horses; their name for themselves is Éotheod , horse-people, and the names of riders like Éomund, Éomer, and Éowyn begin with the word for "horse", eo[h] . In Shippey's view, a defining virtue of the Riders is panache , which he explains means both "the white horsetail on [Éomer's] helm floating in his speed" and "the virtue of sudden onset,

425-519: A line that directly translates a line of Beowulf , "The light of it shines far over the land", representing líxte se léoma ofer landa fela . The hall is anachronistically described as having louvres to remove the smoke, derived from William Morris 's 1889 The House of the Wolfings . Upstream from Edoras, deeper into Harrowdale, are the hamlets of Upbourn and Underharrow. At the head of Dunharrow (from Old English Dûnhaerg , "the heathen fane on

510-526: A suffix frequent in names of lands [e.g. Beleriand , Ossiriand ]. ... Rohan is a famous name, from Brittany , borne by an ancient proud and powerful family . I was aware of this, and liked its shape; but I had also (long before) invented the Elvish horse-word, and saw how Rohan could be accommodated to the linguistic situation as a late Sindarin name of the Mark (previously called Calenarðon 'the (great) green region') after its occupation by horsemen. Nothing in

595-632: A synonym of the River Silverlode ), even further north, is added to Rohan after the War of the Ring . The Rohirrim are distantly related to the Dúnedain of Gondor , having descended from the same place. Unlike the inhabitants of Gondor, who are portrayed as enlightened and highly civilized, the Rohirrim are shown as being at a lower level of enlightenment. The names and many details of Rohirric culture are derived from Germanic cultures, particularly that of

680-582: A world of Wizards and Elves, Dwarves, Rings of Power , Hobbits, Orcs, Trolls and Ringwraiths , and heroic Men with Elvish blood in their veins, and follow their history through long ages, provided that at the end he tore it all down again, leaving nothing, once again, but dim memories. By the end of The Lord of the Rings , the reader has learnt that the Elves have left for the Uttermost West, never to return, and that

765-548: A year later. Soon after this Saruman took over Isengard, and was welcomed as an ally. Saruman used his influence through the traitor Grima Wormtongue to weaken Théoden . Saruman then launched an invasion of Rohan, with victory in early battles at the Fords of Isen, killing Théoden's son, Théodred. Saruman was defeated at the Battle of the Hornburg , where the tree-like Huorns came from

850-498: Is a mythology where even the gods can die, and it leaves the reader with a vivid sense of life's cycles, with an awareness that everything comes to an end, that, though [the evil] Sauron may go, the elves will fade as well." This fits with Tolkien's equation of Middle-earth with the real Earth at some distant epoch in the past, and with his apparent intention to create a mythology for England . He could combine medieval myths and legends, hints from poems and nearly-forgotten names to build

935-496: Is at variance with the hopeful tone of the rest of the work, remaining cheerful even in the face of apparently insuperable odds. Kocher writes that the Rings of Power reflected the characteristics of the race that was to wear them. Those for Men "stimulated and implemented their ambition for power". Whereas the tough Dwarves resisted Sauron's domination, and the Elves hid their Rings from him, with Men his plan "works perfectly", turning

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1020-591: Is based on the mead hall Heorot in Beowulf ; it is a large hall with a thatched roof that appears golden from far off. The walls are richly decorated with tapestries depicting the history and legends of the Rohirrim, and it serves as a house for the King and his kin, a meeting hall for the King and his advisors, and a gathering hall for ceremonies and festivities. It is at Meduseld that Aragorn , Gimli , Legolas , and Gandalf meet with King Théoden . Legolas describes Meduseld in

1105-727: Is bordered to the north by the Fangorn forest, home to the Ents (tree-giants) led by Treebeard , and by the great river Anduin, called Langflood by the Rohirrim. To the northeast are the walls of Emyn Muil. After the War of the Ring, the kingdom is extended northwards over the Limlight to the borders of Lothlórien . To the east are the mouths of the River Entwash, and the Mering Stream, which separated Rohan from

1190-575: Is built stands in the mouth of the valley of Harrowdale. The river Snowbourn flows past the town on its way east towards the Entwash. The town is protected by a high wall of timber. Meduseld , the Golden Hall of the Kings of Rohan, is in the centre of the town at the top of the hill. "Meduseld", Old English for " mead hall ", is meant to be a translation of an unknown Rohirric word with the same meaning. Meduseld

1275-626: Is evil exactly because he seeks to dominate the wills of others; the Ringwraiths, the nine fallen kings of Men, are the clearest exemplars of the process. Kocher states that the leading Man in The Lord of the Rings is Aragorn, though critics often overlooked him in favour of Frodo as protagonist . Aragorn is one of two Men in the Fellowship of the Ring , the nine walkers from the Free Peoples opposed to

1360-936: Is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". Peter Jackson , in his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , clothes the Haradrim in long red robes and turbans , and has them riding their elephants, giving them the look in Ibata's opinion of "North African or Middle Eastern tribesmen". Ibata notes that the film companion book, The Lord of the Rings: Creatures , describes them as "exotic outlanders" inspired by "12th century Saracen warriors". Jackson's Easterling soldiers are covered in armour, revealing only their "coal-black eyes" through their helmet's eye-slits. Ibata comments that they look Asian, their headgear recalling both Samurai helmets and conical "Coolie" hats. The Tolkien scholar Deborah C. Rogers compares

1445-566: Is probably not to be taken at face value. In a world with other intelligent and cultured races, Men in Middle-earth interact with each other and with the other races in a complex history, narrated mainly in The Silmarillion . Men are in general friendly with the other free peoples, especially Elves; they are implacable enemies of the enslaved peoples, especially Orcs . In the First Age, Men,

1530-770: Is spread along the foothills of the White Mountains in both directions from the Folde. In the West-mark the Westfold extends along the mountains to Helm's Deep (the defensive centre of Westfold) and to the Gap of Rohan. Beyond the Gap of Rohan lies the West Marches, the kingdom's far west borderland. The Eastfold extends along the White Mountains in the opposite direction (and was thus a part of

1615-409: Is strong enough. Aragorn replies gracefully to the tactless suggestion. Kocher comments that by being both bold and tactful, Aragorn has won all that he wanted from Boromir: the sword is genuine, as is Aragorn's claim to own it, and he has been invited back to Gondor. The Fellowship set off, temporarily united; when they reach Parth Galen , Boromir tries to seize the Ring from Frodo, causing Frodo to use

1700-467: Is the central theme of an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ". Where the Hobbits stand for simple, earthbound, comfort-loving people, Men are far more varied, from petty villains and slow-witted publicans to the gentle warrior Faramir and the genuinely heroic Aragorn ; Tolkien had wanted to create a heroic romance suitable for the modern age. Scholars have identified real-world analogues for each of

1785-585: Is the opposite of hobbitish: tall, not provincial, untroubled by the discomforts of the wild. At the start, in Bree, he appears as a Ranger of the North, a weatherbeaten man named Strider. Gradually the reader discovers he is heir to the throne of Gondor , engaged to be married to Arwen , an Elf-woman. Equipped with a named magical sword , he emerges as an unqualified hero , in Frye's "High Mimetic" or "Romantic" literary mode, making

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1870-554: The Anglo-Saxons and their Old English language, towards which Tolkien felt a strong affinity. Anglo-Saxon England was defeated by the cavalry of the Normans at the Battle of Hastings , and some Tolkien scholars have suggested that the Rohirrim are Tolkien's wishful version of an Anglo-Saxon society that retained a "rider culture", and would have been able to resist such an invasion. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien derived

1955-629: The Atani , the "Second People". Like Elves, Men first awoke in the East of Middle-earth , spreading all over the continent and developing a variety of cultures and ethnicities. Unlike Tolkien's Elves, Men are mortal; when they die, they depart to a world unknown even to the godlike Valar . Men are one of the four "free peoples" in the list-poem spoken by the Ent Treebeard ; the others being Elves, Dwarves , and Ents. Hobbits , not included on that list, were

2040-638: The Black Gate of Mordor and took part in the Battle of the Morannon against the forces of Sauron . At this time, the destruction of the Ruling Ring in Mount Doom ended the battle and the war. Éowyn married Faramir , Prince of Ithilien . The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance writes that Théoden is transformed by Gandalf into a good bold "Germanic king"; she contrasts this with the failure of "the proud Beorhtnoth " in

2125-606: The Dúnedain ) from the First Age . In the 21st century, a remnant tribe of such Northmen, the Éothéod , moved from the valleys of Anduin to the northwest of Mirkwood , disputing with the Dwarves over the treasure-hoard of Scatha the dragon . In 2509, Cirion the Steward of Gondor summoned the Éothéod to help repel an invasion of Men from Rhûn and Orcs from Mordor . Eorl the Young, lord of

2210-604: The Edain , lived in Beleriand on the extreme West of Middle-earth. They form an alliance with the Elves and join a disastrous war against the first Dark Lord, Morgoth , which destroys Beleriand. As a reward for fighting in the war, the creator, Eru Iluvatar , gives the Edain the new island of Númenor as their home. The key difference between Men and Elves now becomes central to the story: Elves are immortal , and return to Valinor , home of

2295-694: The Ostrogoths in Italy from 536 to 540. Tolkien saw this as a parallel with the real-world relationship between Old English and Gothic . In response to a query about clothing styles in Middle-earth , Tolkien wrote: The Rohirrim were not "medieval", in our sense. The styles of the Bayeux Tapestry (made in England) fit them well enough, if one remembers that the kind of tennis-nets [the] soldiers seem to have on are only

2380-720: The emblem of the House of Éorl , a "white horse upon green", from the Uffington White Horse carved into the grass of the chalk downs in England. While Tolkien represents the Rohirrim with Anglo-Saxon culture and language, their ancestors are given Gothic attributes. The names of Rhovanion's royal family, (the ancestors of the Rohirrim), include such names as Vidugavia, Vidumavi and Vinitharya, which are of Gothic origin. Vidugavia specifically has been seen as an synonym for Vitiges , king of

2465-550: The peoples of Middle-earth are dwindling and fading : the Elves are leaving, and the Ents are childless. By the Fourth Age, Middle-earth is peopled with Men, and indeed Tolkien intended it to represent the real world in the distant past. Commentators have questioned Tolkien's attitude to race, given that good peoples are white and live in the West, while enemies may be dark and live in the East and South. However, others note that Tolkien

2550-486: The "petty villain", Bill Ferny ; the "loathsome" Grima Wormtongue ; the "slow-thinking" publican Barliman Butterbur of Bree ; "that portrait of damnation", Denethor , Steward of Gondor ; and at the upper end of the scale, the kingly Théoden , brought back to life from Wormtongue's corruption; the "gentle warrior" Faramir and his brother the hero-villain Boromir; and finally the ranger Aragorn, who becomes king. Aragorn

2635-674: The Black Númenóreans, good men gone wrong; and the Corsairs of Umbar , rebels of Gondor. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar notes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Faramir , son of the Steward of Gondor , makes an "arrogant" speech, of which he later "has cause to repent", classifying the types of Men as seen by the Men of Númenórean origin at the end of the Third Age ; she notes, too, that his taxonomy

Rohan, Middle-earth - Misplaced Pages Continue

2720-779: The East-mark). It is bound by the Entwash to the north. Its eastern borderland is called the Fenmarch; beyond this lies the Kingdom of Gondor. The centre of Rohan is a large plain, divided by the Entwash into the East Emnet and the West Emnet. These regions fell respectively into the East-mark and the West-mark. The northernmost region of Rohan, and the least populous, is the Wold. The Field of Celebrant (named for

2805-590: The Gondorian province of Anórien, known to the Rohirrim as Sunlending. To the south lie the White Mountains ( Ered Nimrais ) . To the west are the rivers Adorn and Isen, where Rohan borders the land of the Dunlendings . To the northwest, just under the southern end of the Misty Mountains , lies the walled circle of Isengard around the ancient tower of Orthanc; at the time of the War of the Ring, it had been taken over by

2890-679: The Index to The Lord of the Rings , "the border country of the knights"; also Éo-marc , the Horse-mark , or simply the Mark . They call themselves the Éorlingas , the Sons of Éorl. Tolkien rendered the language of the Riders of Rohan, Rohirric , as the Mercian dialect of Old English. Even words and phrases that were printed in modern English showed a strong Old English influence. This solution occurred to Tolkien when he

2975-407: The Men of The Lord of the Rings with the Hobbits . She notes that the Hobbits are to an extent the low, simple, earthbound "clods" of the story who like beer and comfort and do not wish to go on adventures; they fit the antihero of modern literature and Northrop Frye 's lower literary modes including various forms of humour. In contrast, Tolkien's Men are not all of a piece: Rogers mentions

3060-421: The Old English poem The Battle of Maldon . In her view, in the account of the battle of Helm's Deep, the fortress of the Riddermark, Tolkien is emphasising the Rohirrim's physical prowess. The philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that the Riders of Rohan are, despite Tolkien's protestations, much like the ancient English (the Anglo-Saxons), but that they differed from the ancient English in having

3145-419: The Old English poem The Wanderer . "Thus spoke a forgotten poet long ago in Rohan, recalling how tall and fair was Eorl the Young, who rode down out of the North," Aragorn explains, after singing the Lament . In the 13th century of the Third Age , the Kings of Gondor made close alliances with the Northmen of Rhovanion , a people said in The Lord of the Rings to be akin to the Three Houses of Men (later

3230-429: The Old English saying Éorl sceal on éos boge, éored sceal getrume rídan ("The leader shall on horse's back, warband shall ride in a body"). The Riders are a Germanic warrior-society, exemplifying the "northern heroic spirit", like the Anglo-Saxons. But the "crucial" fact is the language; Honegger notes that Tolkien had represented Westron speech as modern English; since Rohan spoke a related but older language, Old English

3315-427: The Rangers including Aragorn , and the men of Gondor are descended; and their allies the Rohirrim . The main human adversaries in The Lord of the Rings are the Haradrim and the Easterlings. The Haradrim or Southrons were hostile to Gondor, and used elephants in war. Tolkien describes them as "swart", meaning "dark-skinned". The Easterlings lived in Rhûn, the vast eastern region of Middle-earth; they fought in

3400-446: The Ring to escape; the Fellowship is scattered. Orcs attack, seeking the Ring; Boromir repents, and dies trying to save the Hobbits, an act which redeems him. Aragorn gives Boromir an honourable boat-funeral . The quest eventually succeeds, and Aragorn, growing in strength through many perils and wise decisions is crowned King. Boromir gave in to the temptation of power, and fell; Aragorn responded rightfully, and rose. The status of

3485-461: The Rings was death and the human desire to escape it. The theme, which recurs throughout the work, is sharply visible in an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ", in which the immortal Elf Arwen chooses mortality so that she can marry the mortal Man Aragorn . The result, as with the earlier intermarriage of their ancestors Lúthien and Beren in the First Age in Beleriand, was to make Aragorn's line exceptionally long-lived among Men, and as

Rohan, Middle-earth - Misplaced Pages Continue

3570-442: The Rohan border: Amon Dîn , Eilenach , Nardol , Erelas , Min-Rimmon , Calenhad and Halifirien . At the start of the War of the Ring a Full Muster would have been over 12,000 riders. Among the horses of the Rohirrim were the famed mearas , the noblest and fastest horses that ever roamed Arda . It was because of the close affiliation with horses, both in war and peace, that they received their name. Tolkien generally called

3655-456: The Rohirrim resonated with 1960s feminists , contributing to the success of Lord of the Rings at that time. For Peter Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , the Poolburn Reservoir in Central Otago , New Zealand was used for Rohan scenes. The theme for Rohan is played on a Hardanger fiddle . A fully realised set for Edoras was built on Mount Sunday in the upper reaches of the Rangitata Valley , near Erewhon in New Zealand. Some of

3740-440: The Rohirrim to victory against the forces of Mordor ; he is killed when his horse falls, but his niece Éowyn kills the leader of the Ringwraiths . Tolkien's own account, in an unsent letter, gives both the fictional and the actual etymologies of Rohan: Rohan is stated (III 391, 394) to be a later softened form of Rochand . It is derived from Elvish *rokkō ‘swift horse for riding’ ( Q[uenya] rocco , S[indarin] roch ) +

3825-424: The West". Arnor becomes fragmented, and declines until its kings become Rangers in the wilds, but they retain their memory of Númenor or "Westernesse", through many generations down to Aragorn , a protagonist in The Lord of the Rings . The line of kings in Gondor eventually dies out, and the country is ruled by Stewards , the throne empty, until Aragorn returns. Tolkien stated that the core theme of The Lord of

3910-462: The ambitious kings into Ringwraiths , the nine Black Riders. With the One Ring to rule them, Sauron gains complete control over them, and they become his most powerful servants. Kocher comments that for Tolkien, the exercise of personal free will , the most precious gift, is "the distinguishing mark of his individuality". The wise, like the Wizard Gandalf and the Elf-queen Galadriel , therefore avoid putting pressure on anybody. In contrast, Sauron

3995-442: The armies of Morgoth and Sauron . Tolkien describes them as "slant-eyed"; they ride horses or wagons, leading to the name "wain-riders". The Variags of Khand formed a third but smaller group, who appear as vassals of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . Their name is from Russian : Варяги ( Variag ), meaning the Varangians , Viking or other Germanic warriors who served as mercenaries . Other human adversaries include

4080-477: The building. However, a Danish leader in Beowulf - Shield Sheafson - was described as "a wrecker of mead benches". From at least the tenth century onwards in Norse mythology , there are numerous examples of halls where the dead may arrive. The best known example is Valhalla , the hall where Odin receives half of the dead lost in battle. Freyja , in turn, receives the other half at Sessrúmnir . In fiction, mead halls usually appear in works that take place during

4165-468: The cunningly-built tower of Isengard, Orthanc, and for the Ents, the tree-giants of Fangorn forest, are similarly Old English, both being found in the phrase orþanc enta geweorc , "cunning work of giants" in the poem The Ruin , though Shippey suggests that Tolkien may have chosen to read the phrase also as "Orthanc, the Ent's fortress". In The Two Towers , chapter 6, the Riders of Rohan are introduced before they are seen, by Aragorn , who chants in

4250-412: The dash that sweeps away resistance." Shippey notes that this allows Tolkien to display Rohan both as English, based on their Old English names and words like éored ("troop of cavalry"), and as "alien, to offer a glimpse of the way land shapes people". Shippey states further that "the Mark" (or the Riddermark), the land of the Riders of Rohan – all of whom have names in the Mercian dialect of Old English,

4335-425: The door-frame. The site was known among the cast and crew for being extremely windy, as can be seen during the film and DVD interviews. After filming, Mount Sunday was returned to its original state. Men (Middle-earth) Tolkien uses the Men of Middle-earth, interacting with immortal Elves, to explore a variety of themes in The Lord of the Rings , especially death and immortality. This appears throughout, but

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4420-424: The evil wizard Saruman . The area of the western border where the Misty Mountains and the White Mountains drew near to each other is known as the Gap of Rohan. The capital of Rohan is the fortified town of Edoras , on a hill in a valley of the White Mountains . "Edoras" is Old English for "enclosures". The town of Edoras was built by Rohan's second King, Brego son of Eorl the Young. The hill on which Edoras

4505-409: The forest of Fangorn to help the Rohirrim. Théoden then rode with his army to Minas Tirith , helping to break its siege in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and killing the leader of the Haradrim , but was killed when his horse fell. He was succeeded by his nephew Éomer . His niece Éowyn and the hobbit Merry Brandybuck killed the Lord of the Nazgûl . Éomer rode with the armies of Gondor to

4590-420: The friendly races has been debated by critics. David Ibata, writing in The Chicago Tribune , asserts that the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings all have fair skin, and they are mainly blond-haired and blue-eyed as well. Ibata suggests that having the "good guys" white and their opponents of other races, in both book and film, is uncomfortably close to racism. The theologian Fleming Rutledge states that

4675-402: The godlike Valar , when they become weary of Middle-earth, or are killed in battle. Men, however, are mortal. Morgoth's servant, Sauron , tempts the Men of Númenor to attack Valinor, in their search for immortality: Sauron has falsely insinuated that Men can become immortal just by being in that place. The Men and Númenor are destroyed: the island is drowned, Atlantis -like, beneath the waves;

4760-409: The hillside") is a refuge, Firienfeld, in the White Mountains. Aldburg, capital of the Eastfold, is the original settlement of Eorl the Young. The Hornburg, a major fortress guarding the western region, is in Helm's Deep , a valley in the White Mountains. The kingdom of Rohan, also called the Mark, is primarily divided into two regions, the East-mark and the West-mark. They are each led by a marshal of

4845-508: The history of Brittany will throw any light on the Éorlingas. ... In Tolkien's Middle-earth, Rohan is an inland realm. Its countryside is described as a land of pastures and lush tall grassland which is frequently windswept. The meadows contain "many hidden pools, and broad acres of sedge waving above wet and treacherous bogs" that water the grasses. The cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad calculated Rohan to be 52,763 square miles (136,656 km) in area (slightly larger than England ). Rohan

4930-418: The kingdom's language and names, pretending that this was in translation of Rohirric. Meduseld, the hall of King Théoden , is modelled on Heorot , the great hall in Beowulf . Within the plot of The Lord of the Rings , Rohan plays a critical role in the action—first against the wizard Saruman in the Battle of the Hornburg , then in the climactic Battle of the Pelennor Fields . There, Théoden leads

5015-416: The kingdom. Rohan's capital, Edoras, lies in a small but populous region in the centre south of the kingdom, the Folde. In an earlier concept, Rohan's capital region was called the King's Lands, of which the Folde was a sub-region to the south-east of Edoras. North of the Folde, the boundary between the East-mark and West-mark runs along the Snowbourn River and the Entwash. Most of the rest of Rohan's population

5100-426: The language of the Rohirrim words "in a slow tongue unknown to the Elf and the Dwarf ", a lai that Legolas senses "is laden with the sadness of Mortal Men ". The song is called the Lament of the Rohirrim . To achieve a resonant sense of the lost past, the now-legendary time of a peaceful alliance of the Horse-lords with the realm of Gondor , Tolkien adapted the short Ubi sunt ("Where are they?") passage of

5185-413: The language simply "the language of Rohan" or "of the Rohirrim". The adjectival form "Rohirric" is common; Tolkien once also used "Rohanese". Like many languages of Men , it is akin to Adûnaic , the language of Númenóreans , and therefore to the Westron or Common Speech. The Rohirrim called their homeland the Riddermark, a modernization by Tolkien of Old English Riddena-mearc , meaning, according to

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5270-437: The latter asked for their aid through the giving of the Red Arrow . This has a historical antecedent in the Old English poem Elene , in which Constantine the Great summoned an army of mounted Visigoths to his aid against the Huns by sending an arrow as a "token of war". Gondor could also call the Rohirrim in need by lighting the warning beacons of Gondor, seven signal fires along the White Mountains from Minas Tirith to

5355-545: The leader of the Drúedain, Ghân-buri-Ghân, is treated as a noble savage . Michael N. Stanton writes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Hobbits were "a distinctive form of human beings", and notes that their speech contains "vestigial elements" which hint that they originated in the North of Middle-earth. The scholar Margaret Sinex states that Tolkiens' construction of the Easterlings and Southrons draws on centuries of Christian tradition of creating an "imaginary Saracen". Zakarya Anwar judges that while Tolkien himself

5440-749: The modern English words salon and saloon (both augmentative forms of 'sal'). The word as a whole ("mead-hall") is a direct cognate with the Sanskrit term "madhushala" which refers to a pub or tavern. From around the year 500 A.D. up until the Christianization of Scandinavia (by the 13th century), these large halls were vital parts of the political center. They were later superseded by medieval banquet halls . Examples that have been excavated include: The mead hall developed from European longhouses : The possibly related medieval longhouse types of Europe of which some examples have survived are among others: There are several accounts of large feasting halls constructed for important feasts when Scandinavian royalty

5525-442: The mortal, master of horses" is listed last among the free peoples, who were created separately. Although all Men in Tolkien's legendarium are related to one another, there are many different groups with different cultures. Those on the side of the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are the Dúnedain , the men who fought on the side of the Elves in the First Age against Morgoth in Beleriand , from whom other friendly groups,

5610-481: The nine Black Riders. The other is Boromir , elder son of the Steward of Gondor, and the two Men are sharply opposed. Both are ambitious, and both intend one day to rule Gondor. Boromir means to fight valiantly, to save Gondor, with any help he can get, and to inherit the Stewardship. Aragorn knows he is in the line of kings by his ancestry, but he is unknown in Gondor. When they meet at the Council of Elrond , they dispute who has been holding back Sauron. Aragorn presents

5695-522: The other hand, had to stay in the old feasting hall. The Swedish king was so humiliated that he killed Áki. The construction of new feasting halls could also be the preparation for treacherous murders of royalty. In the Ynglinga saga part of the Heimskringla , Snorri relates how, in the 8th century, the legendary Swedish king Ingjald constructed a large feasting hall solely for the purpose of burning all his subordinate petty kings late at night when they were asleep. According to Yngvars saga víðförla ,

5780-435: The other peoples, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and all the rest, are dwindling and fading, leaving only a world of Men. Kocher writes that the furthest look into Man's future in The Lord of the Rings is the conversation between the Elf Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli , close friends, at the moment when they first visit Minas Tirith , the capital city of the Men of Gondor, "and see the marks of decay around them". Gimli says that

5865-857: The residence of a lord or king and his retainers . These structures were also where lords could formally receive visitors and where the community would gather to socialize, allowing lords to oversee the social activity of their subjects. The old name of such halls may have been sal/salr and thus be present in old place names such as "Uppsala". The meaning has been preserved in German Saal , Dutch zaal , Frisian seal , Icelandic salur Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈsaːlʏr̥] , Swedish, Norwegian and Danish sal , Lithuanian salė , Finnish sali , Estonian saal , Izhorian saali , Hungarian szállás , French salle , Italian/Polish/ Portuguese /Spanish/Serbo-Croatian sala and Russian зал (zal), (all meaning "hall" or "large room"). In Old English, sele and sæl were used. These words are etymologically related to

5950-413: The royal family intermarried with other people of Gondor, to maintain or extend the lifespan of the entire race. The overall feeling in The Lord of the Rings , however, despite the victories and Aragorn's long-awaited kingship and marriage, is of decline and fall , echoing the view of Norse mythology that everything will inevitably be destroyed. As the Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns put it, "Here

6035-470: The same ruse was done by the Swedish king Eric the Victorious and the Norwegian ruler Sigurd Jarl , when they murdered Áki, a rebellious Swedish subking, at Gamla Uppsala , in the late 10th century. It is also possible that large halls may have served as places of protection. It is speculated that, under Alfred the Great's rule, fines protecting property belonging to the king may have also applied to feasting halls. These fines prevented fighting inside of

6120-600: The second line of kings, which lasted until the end of the Third Age. The two lines of kings are buried in two lines of grave mounds below the royal hall at Edoras, like those at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden, or Sutton Hoo in England. In 2758, Rohan was invaded by Dunlendings under Wulf, son of Freca, of mixed Dunland and Rohan blood. The King, Helm Hammerhand, took refuge in the Hornburg until help from Gondor and Dunharrow arrived

6205-422: The set was built digitally, but the main buildings atop the city were built on location; the mountain ranges in the background were part of the actual location shot. The interiors of buildings such as the Golden Hall, however, were located on soundstages in other parts of New Zealand; when the camera is inside of the Golden Hall, looking out the open gates, the image of the on-set Edoras set is digitally inserted into

6290-520: The shards of the broken sword of his ancestor, Elendil, and asks Boromir if he wants the House of Elendil (the line of kings) to return. Boromir evasively replies that he would welcome the sword. The One Ring is then shown to the Council. Boromir at once thinks of using it himself. Elrond explains how dangerous the Ring is; Boromir reluctantly sets the idea of using it aside for the moment, and suggests again that Elendil's sword might help save Gondor, if Aragorn

6375-553: The varied races of Men, whether from medieval times or classical antiquity . The weakness of Men, The Lord of the Rings asserts, is the desire for power; the One Ring promises enormous power, but is both evil and addictive . Tolkien uses the two Men in the Fellowship created to destroy the Ring , Aragorn and the warrior Boromir , to show the effects of opposite reactions to that temptation. It becomes clear that, except for Men, all

6460-459: The whole novel indeed a heroic romance : he regains his throne, marries Arwen, and has a long, peaceful, and happy reign. Mead hall Among the early Germanic peoples , a mead hall or feasting hall was a large building with a single room intended to receive guests and serve as a center of community social life. From the fifth century to the Early Middle Ages such a building was

6545-445: The works of Men always "fail of their promise"; Legolas replies that even if that's so, "seldom do they fail of their seed", in marked contrast to the scarcity of children among Elves and Dwarves, implying that Men will outlast the other races. Gimli suggests again that Men's projects "come to naught in the end but might-have-beens". Legolas just replies "To that the Elves know not the answer". Kocher comments that this "sad little fugue"

6630-511: The world is made round; and Valinor is removed from the world, so that only the Elves can reach it. Sauron's body is destroyed, but his spirit escapes to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth. A remnant of the Men of Númenor who remained faithful, under Elendil , sail to Middle-earth, where they found the kingdoms of Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South, remaining known as the Dúnedain, "Men of

6715-546: The Éothéod, answered the summons, arriving unexpected at a decisive battle on the Field of Celebrant, routing the orc army. As a reward, Éorl was given the Gondorian province of Calenardhon (except for Isengard). Eorl the Young founded the Kingdom of Rohan in the former Calenardhon; the royal family was known as the House of Eorl. The first line of kings lasted for 249 years, until the ninth king Helm Hammerhand died. His sons had been killed earlier, and his nephew Fréaláf Hildeson began

6800-454: Was anti-racist, his fantasy writings can certainly be taken the wrong way. With his different races of Men arranged from good in the West to evil in the East, simple in the North and sophisticated in the South, Tolkien had, in the view of John Magoun, constructed a "fully expressed moral geography ": Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast

6885-577: Was invited. According to a legend recorded by Snorri Sturluson , in the Heimskringla , the late 9th century Värmlandish chieftain Áki invited both the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair and the Swedish king Eric Eymundsson , but had the Norwegian king stay in the newly constructed and sumptuous one, because he was the youngest one of the kings and the one who had the greatest prospects. The older Swedish king, on

6970-574: Was once the usual term for central England, and it would have been pronounced and written "marc" rather than the West Saxon "mearc" or the Latinized "Mercia". The Tolkien scholar Thomas Honegger , agreeing with Shippey's description of the Rohirrim as "Anglo-Saxons on Horseback", calls the sources for them "quite obvious to anyone familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature and culture". The resemblances, according to Honegger, include masterly horsemanship, embodying

7055-691: Was searching for an explanation of the Eddaic names of the dwarves already published in The Hobbit . Tolkien, a philologist , with a special interest in Germanic languages , pretended that the names and phrases of Old English were translated from Rohirric, just as the English used in The Shire was supposedly translated from Middle-earth's Westron or Common Speech . Examples include éored and mearas . The Riders' names for

7140-664: Was strongly anti-racist in real life. The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world, in his books The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion , is the second race of beings, the "younger children", created by the One God , Ilúvatar . Because they awoke in the First Age at the start of the Years of the Sun , long after the Elves , the Elves called them the "afterborn", or in Quenya

7225-558: Was the natural choice in the same style; Tolkien's 1942 table of correspondences also showed that the language of the people of Dale was represented by Norse . Honegger notes that this does not equate the Rohirrim with the Anglo-Saxons (on horseback or not), but it does show a strong connection, making them "the people most dear to Tolkien and all medievalists." Jane Ciabattari writes on BBC Culture that Lady Éowyn's fear of being caged rather than "doing great deeds" by riding to battle with

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