Rohan
|
The banner of Rohan, as rendered in Peter Jackson's movies; the sun is an embellishment on the book's description. |
Rohan (from
Sindarin Rochand), is a fictional realm in
J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe
Middle-earth. It is of significant importance in the author's most famous book,
The Lord of the Rings.
Rohan is a grassland which lies north of its ally
Gondor and north-west of
Mordor, the realm of
Sauron, their enemy. It is inhabited by
Rohirrim, a people of
herdsmen and some farmers which are well-known for their horses and
cavalry.
Conceptualized as the "Horse kings of Rohan" allied with
Mordor in early drafts of 1939, the Rohirrim took their final form in 1942 when
The Lord of the Rings was completed to about one third.
The countryside of Rohan is described as a land of pastures and lush tall grassland which is frequently windswept. It is similar to the Central Asian
steppe or North American
Great Plains, and its climate was also similar to these places. The lands of Rohan are frequently described as appearing like "seas of grass".
At the time of the War of the Ring, Rohan was roughly a third the size of Gondor, whose borders had slowly been shrinking for decades. It was also much more sparsely populated. Judging from the size of the cavalry forces and militia King Théoden was able to muster, Rohan's population probably numbered only about 50,000.
Borders
The borders of Rohan are: The rivers
Isen and
Adorn in the west, where Rohan borders
Isengard and the land of the
Dunlendings; the
White Mountains and the Mering Stream, which separate it from Gondor, in the south; the mouths of
Entwash in the east; and the river
Limlight in the north.
Cities
The capital of Rohan is the hill fort of
Edoras which lies on the slopes of the White Mountains. Another large city is
Aldburg, capital city of the Eastfold and original city of
Eorl the Young. A third notable city is Snowbourne, named after the
river which runs nearby it. It is similar in appearance to the hill-fort of
Edoras.
Dunharrow is a refuge in the White Mountains.
Helm's Deep is a valley in the White Mountains in which the Hornburg, a major fortress of Rohan, is located.
The Rohirrim are descendants of the
Edain of the
First Age. They did not go to
Beleriand like the Edain who were later rewarded with the island of
Númenor by the
Valar. The ancestors of the Rohirrim were known as the
Éothéod and were given the province of Calenardhon by Gondor after the Battle of the Field of Celebrant.
Horses and Warfare
The Rohirrim are famous as skilled horsemen, masters and breeders. Among the horses of the Rohirrim are the famed
Mearas, the noblest and fastest horses who have ever roamed
Arda;
Felaróf was the greatest of all Mearas. The armies of Rohan are almost exclusively
cavalry, divided into irregular units termed éoreds. Rohan's armies were more of a very well trained militia called upon in times of war, with the actual standing army relatively small. The professional career-soldiers of Rohan may have been limited to the royal guard at Edoras. They are described as having round shields, long spears, long swords, a light helm, and a chain mail hauberk that extends down to their knees.
It was because of this close affiliation with horses, both in war and peace, that they received their now famous name.
Rohirrim (or more properly
Rochirrim) is
Sindarin for "Horse-lords," and
Rohan (or
Rochand) means "Land of the Horse-lords." These names were devised by
Hallas, son of
Cirion the Steward.
Language
The Rohirrim's language is Rohirric. It is, like the languages of all
Men, akin to
Adûnaic, the language of the Edain.
The Rohirrim call their homeland the
Ridenna-mearc, the
Riddermark or
Éo-marc, the
Horse-mark, also simply the
Mark and call themselves the
Eorlingas, the Sons of
Eorl.In the original Rohirric the name for their land is
Lôgrad, with the element "lô-"/"loh-" corresponding to Anglo-Saxon "éo", horse.
Rohirric bears a similar relationship to the Common Speech of Middle-earth as that of Old English to modern English, and so Tolkien rendered Rohirric names and phrases into
Old English (Anglo-Saxon), just as the
Common Speech is translated into English. Examples include words such as
Mearas (another Old English word for "horses", which survives into Modern English as "
mares") and
éored. Tolkien was a
philologist, with a special interest in
Germanic languages.
Many archaic
Hobbit names bear similarities to Rohirric, since the ancestors of the
Shire hobbits lived on the upper reaches of the
Anduin, close to the ancestors of the Rohirrim, and there was apparently a good deal of linguistic cross-fertilisation. The name
Hobbit itself is believed to be derived from the Rohirric
Holbytlan (hole builders). These names are also translations of the original Westron
Kuduk (Hobbit) and Rohirric
kûd-dûkan (hole dweller), of course.
In the thirteenth century of the
Third Age (T.A.), the Kings of Gondor made close alliances with the Northmen of
Rhovanion, a people akin to the
Three Houses of Men (later the
Dúnedain) from the
First Age.
In the twenty-first century, a remnant tribe of such Northmen calling itself the
Éothéod moved from the valleys of
Anduin to the north west of
Mirkwood, clearing out what remained of the recently defeated witch kingdom of
Angmar, east of the
Misty Mountains. While there, some dispute arose between them and the
Dwarves over the treasure-hoard of
Scatha the dragon.
Later, in 2509,
Cirion the
Steward of Gondor sent summons to the Éothéod for aid in throwing off a combined invasion of Men from the north east of Middle-earth, and
Orcs from
Mordor.
Eorl the Young, king of the Éothéod, answered the summons, and arrived unexpected at a decisive battle at the Field of Celebrant.
As a reward, Eorl was given the plains of
Calenardhon, and he moved his kingdom there. This land had earlier been part of Gondor proper, but had been devastated by the
plague of 1636, and the survivors to a large extent slain in the invasion mentioned above.
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 the second line of kings, which lasted until the end of the Third Age.
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 aid from Gondor and
Dunharrow (a refuge of the Rohirrim) arrived a year later and defeated the invaders.
It was soon after this that
Saruman arrived and took over
Isengard, and was welcomed as a strong ally, since it would take Rohan close to 200 years to recover its strength after the invasion.
In 3014, Saruman began using his influence to weaken the King,
Théoden, as part of a campaign to invade or take over the kingdom. In 3019, he launched a big invasion on Rohan, with victory in the two first battles (at the
Fords of Isen; Théoden's son,
Théodred was killed during these attacks) and defeat at the
Battle of the Hornburg, where the
Huorns came to the aid of the Rohirrim.
On the heels of this victory,
Théoden rode with an army to
Minas Tirith and helped break its siege in the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields, where he was slain.
Éomer, the nephew of King
Théoden, then took up the reign, beginning the third line.
Éomer rode with the armies of
Gondor to the
Black Gate of Mordor and took part in the
Battle of the Morannon against the forces of
Sauron, who were defeated when the
Ruling Ring was destroyed.
The rule of the stewards of Gondor was then over. King Éomer and the new king of Gondor,
Elessar (Aragorn), renewed their oath of alliance, and reaffirmed Cirion's grant of Calenardhon to the Rohirrim.
See also
Timeline of ArdaAlliance with Gondor
The alliance between Rohan and Gondor came into existence in the year 2510 of the
Third Age. In that year the
Easterlings launched a massive invasion of Gondor. The army of Gondor was defeated and trapped between the Limlight and the
Celebrant. Gondor, which had always been on friendly terms with the different tribes of the
Northmen, sent messengers to the closest tribe, the
Éothéod. Although it was unlikely that the message calling for aid would come through, it did. Then
Eorl the Young and his fierce Éothéod Riders unexpectedly took the field during the Battle of Celebrant and turned the tide in the favour of Gondor. As a reward
Cirion, the
Steward of Gondor, gave Eorl the depopulated province of Calenardhon for his people to settle, while fulfilling Gondor's need for a strong ally. The
Oath of Eorl was sworn by both Cirion and Eorl. Neither nation has ever broken the alliance ever since. Rohan has gone through great lengths to fulfil their part of the treaty including sacrificing two of its heirs when Gondor was under threat from the
Haradrim in 2885, when
Fastred and
Folcred, the twin sons of King
Folcwine, were killed during the Battle of Crossings of
Poros. King
Théoden once again honoured the alliance in the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
War with the Dunlendings
To the west of Rohan lived the
Dunlendings, a native people who had been hostile against the Free Peoples for a long time. The Dunlending
Wulf briefly usurped of the throne of Rohan during the long winter. Wulf was also the commander the Dunlendings and led them on constant raids upon the towns and cities of Rohan. A notable Dunlender by the name of Ghan-Bhuri-Ghan assisted Théoden, by leading him and his Rohhirim in secret ways to hasten their passage to Minas Tirith in exchange for peace between their people.
Rumours of tributes paid to Sauron
During the early days of the
War of the Ring, rumours were spread that the Rohirrim supplied Sauron's armies with horses. These rumours were obviously false: the Rohirrim valued their horses more than anything, and would never send them away, even as tribute. Still these rumours had some effect, in that they obscured the fact it was Saruman who had fallen, rather than Rohan. The basis of the rumour was that Sauron's
Orcs on raids into Rohan stole almost all of their black horses (Making them rare) for use in Mordor's army, but this was outright theft that angered the Rohirrim against Sauron.
Wormtongue
When King Théoden began to grow old, he took as an advisor
Gríma, later called
Wormtongue. Gríma quickly became Théoden's chief advisor, but unknown to all he was secretly working for Saruman. Gríma played on Théoden's fears to further weaken the strength of the king and all of Rohan, always advising retreat where an attack was needed. He may have also begun poisoning the king at this time. This nearly proved disastrous for Rohan, and also for Gondor, by robbing them of their strongest ally in the north. Gríma Wormtongue's plans were not revealed until
Gandalf arrived in Edoras during the War of the Ring.
Several aspects of Rohan's culture and history seem to be inspired by the
Goths,
Scandinavians and the medieval
Anglo-Saxons.
Just like the Germanic
Ostrogoths, Rohirric culture was a mounted culture. It had separated from the
Northmen, moved south, and had settled in close proximity with a civilization. In the Goths' case it was the
Byzantine Empire and in the case of the Rohirrim, it was Gondor.
The
Hervarar saga in particular, with its
Mirkwood, Gothic horsemen and
shieldmaidens, appears to have inspired Tolkien when creating the Rohirrim, although he exchanged the Gothic tongue with Anglo-Saxon.
Language
Tolkien rendered
Rohirric as
Old English, but also included Scandinavian names, such as
Westfold. Even words and phrases that were printed in
Modern English showed a strong Anglo-Saxon influence. Old English was supposed to render an archaic form of
Westron, which was supposedly rendered by Modern English. This solution occurred to Tolkien in 1942, when he was searching for an explanation of the
Eddaic name of the dwarves already published in
The Hobbit. Rohirric nouns were pluralized with the suffix "-as", as were Old English nouns of the strong-masculine declension.
The Rohirrim used the Germanic
patronymic "-ing". They called themselves the
Eorlingas, and
Beorn's people were the
Beorningas,
Scyld's people were the
Scyldingas in Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology.
Théoden was referred to as "Théoden King", rather than "King Théoden", just as Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon kings had the word "konungr"/"cyning" ("king") added after their names, e.g.
Hervarðar konungr, rather than before.
Many Rohirric names appear to be derived from Old English words. These include:
*
Éothéod: from "eoh" ("war-horse") and "þeod" ("folk", "people", "nation")
*
Gríma: possibly from "grima" ("mask", "helmet", "ghost")
*
Eorl: from "eorl" ("nobleman")
*
Théodred: from "þeod" ("folk", "people", "nation") and "ræd" ("counsel")
The antipathy between the Rohirrim and the
Dunlendings resembles the historical tension between the
Anglo-Saxon settlers of Britain and the native
Celts.
*
Eorl the Young*
Helm Hammerhand*
Théoden*
Théodred*
Éomer*
Éowyn* Various participants in the final wars.
*
Gríma Wormtongue* Gamling
