Rohirrim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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, pale, and blond (which they wore long and braided) and mostly had blue eyes. They prized their horses very much, and their entire culture was based around these. They had few cities, but lived in many villages on the plains of Rohan. They were by nature stern, fierce and grave yet generous.
- 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 fighters on horseback; they were armed with swords, shields, spears and bows. They used helms and hauberks of chain mail. In time of war, every able man was obliged to join the Muster of Rohan. They were bound by the Oath of Eorl to help Gondor in times of peril.
They were ruled by a line of kings descended from Eorl the Young.
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.[citation needed]
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 venerated the Vala Oromë the Hunter, whom they called Béma.
[edit] The word
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, which also refers to their language.)
The names and many details of their culture are in fact derived from Scandinavian-derived cultures, particularly that of the Anglo-Saxons and their Old English language, towards which Tolkien felt a strong affinity - though the Angles and Saxons preferred to fight on foot rather than on horses (their relations the Goths did fight 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.
It is also worth noting that the Swedes also had a good cavalry and the national symbol of Sweden is, to this day, a Horse.
[edit] In adaptations
In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and produced by New Line Cinema, the Rohirrim, at least of Edoras, have a predilection for black clothes. Some have commented that more colorful clothes would be more apt for a Scandinavian-derived culture. [1] Also, their officers wear some kind of plate armor, with ornate pseudo-Sutton Hoo designs; in the original book, plate armor is scarely mentioned, possibly only being worn by the knights of Dol Amroth.
The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, a book based on the New Line films, purports to record weaponry and military organization in Middle-earth. However the text should not be taken as a canonical record of Tolkien's Middle-earth, but rather of Jackson's version of it since it interweaves Tolkien's details with movie-based embellishments. For example, the book goes into greater detail into the King's guards than does the original:
These men, numbering thirty and fifty in king's time, were the elite warriors in Rohan, handpicked for their skill and particular loyalty. 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 helms 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.
