Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:24, 11 July 2006

It has been suggested that this article be merged into Rohan. (Discuss)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Rohirrim were a horse people, settling in the land of Rohan, named after them. The name is Sindarin for People of the Horse-lords (sometimes translated simply as Horse-lords) and was mostly used by outsiders: the name they had for themselves was Eorlingas, after their king Eorl the Young who had first brought them to Rohan.

The Rohirrim were descended from the Éothéod, a race of Men that lived in the vales of the Great River Anduin, but that removed to Calenardhon which was granted them in perpetuity by the Ruling Steward of Gondor, Cirion in reward for the assistance that they offered Gondor at a time of great need. At that time Calenardhon was renamed Rohan (Horse-land) after their many horses. By the Rohirrim themselves Rohan was usually called The Mark.

The terms Riders of Rohan and Riders of the Mark are commonly used and refer specifically to their mounted soldiers. The former is a chapter title in The Two Towers. The King's Riders were specifically the Riders who formed the bodyguard of the King.

The Rohirrim were tall, blonde, and mostly had blue eyes also with fair faces. They prized their horses more than anything, and their entire culture was based around these. They had few cities, but lived in many villages on the plains of Rohan. The people or Horse-lords of Rohan are by nature of fierce and grave, a proud and ancient people of the race of Men. Stern-faced and handsome they are, brave and generous of spirit. They have bred and magnificient horses for which they are famed throughout the Middle-Earth.

They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years. — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Rohirrim were skilled in both light and heavy calvalry attacks and would have adopted a strategy that depended on the size of the opposing force.

Riders of Rohan: mounted on their fine Riddermark horses, wear burnished skirts of mail to their knees, and carry tall spears of ash and painted shields slung at their backs. They wear their flaxen hair long and in braids, under their decorated helms. Tall and fierce, they are well-versed in the arts of war. They were able to disband and still perform at ther best without the need to be commanded. IF they against a more determined or more numerous foe, the Rohirrm would still use the bow as a principal weapon- the range weapon always formed the first stage of the combat strategy- to try to thin the enemy ranks and create gaps in their line.

Royal Guard of Rohan: These men, numbering thirty and fifty in king's time, were the elite warriors in Rohan, handpicked for their skill and particular royalty. They were well-trained with a full range of weapons. The Royal Guard possessed the only unified armor among the Rohan warriors, consisting of a sleeveless, full-length scale hauberk that was effective on foot and on horse, and a helmet featuring a visor with cutouts for ther eyes, cheek-plates and a tall metal crest of a horse head from which flowed a mane of horsehair; a mail aventail was riveted inside the back of the helmet's skull. The guards additionally wore steel vambraces and pauldrons overworked with leather, which were strapped to the arms, and a steel collar; both the helmet and collar were extensively worked in bronze. A fine wool cloak dyed green and edged with a red and gold pattern was attached to the leather hems of the hauberk with circular bronze brooches featuring the sun device. The leather of the scabbard and the handgrip was dyed the same green as the cloak.

The Dúnedain of Gondor believed that the Rohirrim were distantly related to them (having descended from the Atanatári of the First Age) and described them as Middle Men, that being inferior to the Númenóreans in both culture and descent, but superior to the Men of Darkness who had worshipped and served Sauron. However J. R. R. Tolkien calls this a piece of Númenórean fiction meant to satisfy the national pride of the people of Gondor for the surrender of the territory of Calenardhon -- in reality there had been no common ancestry between the people of Rohan and of Gondor.

The Rohirrim had had contacts with Elves in their ancient history, and knew of Eru, but like the Dúnedain they did not worship him in any temples. They seem to have valued the Vala Oromë the Hunter highly, whom they called Bema.

They were ruled by a line of kings descended from Eorl the Young, who had first brought them to Rohan, and in time of war every able men rode to meet the Muster of Rohan.

Rohirrim is a collective noun and should be used with the definite article (i.e. the Rohirrim). It should not be used as an adjective. (The correct adjective is Rohirric.)

The names and many details of their culture are in fact derived from the Old English languague and culture, towads which Tolkien felt a strong affinity - though the Old Saxons preferred to fight on foot rather than mounted. Ultimately Anglo-Saxon England was defeated by the cavalry of the Normans at the Battle of Hastings, and some Tolkien scholars have speculated 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.

See also

• Kings of Rohan

• Middle-earth Rohirrim