It was because of this close affiliation with horses, both in war and in peace, that they received their now famous name. Rohirrim (or more properly Rochirrim) is Sindarin for " Horse-lords," and Rohan (or Rochand) meant "Land of the Horse-lords." names are also translations of the original Westron Kuduk (Hobbit) and Rohanese kûd-dûkan (hole dweller). The Rohirrim were famous as skilled horsemen and renowned masters of horse breeding. Among the horses of the Rohirrim were the famed Mearas, the noblest and fastest horses who ever roamed Arda; Shadowfax was the greatest of all Mearas. There were very few Mearas left in Middle-earth at this point, but there were enough that a breeding population was present. The army of Rohan was almost exclusively cavalry, divided into irregular units termed éoreds, raised at need and not maintained on a standing basis. Rohan's foot-men armies were more of a very well trained militia called upon in times of war, the militia of Rohan wielded wooden shields of all sizes and used four weapons: longswords, short bows, axes, and longspears. The actual standing infantry force was relatively small with the professional career limited to the royal bodyguard of Edoras. The King's Company were those men that directly served and protected the king. Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Thirded.). Grafton (HarperCollins). ISBN 978-0261102750. 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 a year later. Soon after this Saruman took over Isengard, and was welcomed as an ally. [T 23] War of the Ring [ edit ]

Unfinished Tales, p.315: "a Full Muster would probably have produced many more than twelve thousand riders" Lee, Stuart D. (2009). "J.R.R. Tolkien and 'The Wanderer' ". Tolkien Studies. 6: 189–211. doi: 10.1353/tks.0.0060. S2CID 171082666. 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 the history of Brittany will throw any light on the Éorlingas. ... [T 2] Geography [ edit ] Sketch map of part of Middle-earth in the Third Age. Rohan is top centre, below the southern end of the Misty Mountains and Fangorn forest, and west of the River Anduin. 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 the Ostrogoths in Italy from 536 to 540. [12] Tolkien saw this as a parallel with the real-world relationship between Old English and Gothic. [13] Tolkien's own account, in an unsent letter, gives both the fictional and the actual etymologies of Rohan:

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Folcwine's third son, Fengel, is not remembered with honor. He did little to further strengthen Rohan, and was at odds with both his Marshals and his kin. His only son, Thengel, therefore spent much time in Gondor, and won praise through his service to Steward Turgon. He married Morwen Steelsheen of Lossarnach, and began to raise a family in Gondor. Eventually, when Fengel died, Thengel reluctantly returned to Rohan to take up the kingship. While Thengel was wise and restored dignity to the House of Eorl, he did create some discord by encouraging the use of the language of Gondor in Edoras. At the time of Thengel's return to Rohan in TA 2953, Saruman first began to trouble the Rohirrim, and he declared himself Lord of Isengard. Also during Thengel's reign, the captain Thorongil (later revealed to be Aragorn II Elessar) first appeared in Rohan, and entered the service of the king, and won great renown. Thengel died in TA 2980 and was succeeded by his son, Théoden the Renowned. Kingdom of Dale • Harad • Núrn • Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor • Rohan • Rhûn • Khand • Eriador • Rhovanion • Vales of Anduin

In the year TA 2509, Eorl received summons from Cirion, Steward of Gondor. The Steward pleaded for help from Gondor's old allies; as a large army of Easterling Balchoth had invaded the province of Calenardhon and threatened to overrun it. Eorl surprised even the errand-rider of Gondor by agreeing to come to the aid of Cirion. Though young, Eorl wisely perceived that if Gondor should fall, all the lesser realms of men west of Anduin would eventually fall. He gathered all the Men of the Éothéod that could possibly be spared, some 7000, and, leaving his land at risk of invasion itself, rode south to the aid of Gondor. Despite a prejudice against the Elves that would continue up until the time of the War of the Ring, a protective mist seemed to come out of Lothlórien as the Éothéod journeyed south, rejuvenating horse and rider and shielding their approach from their enemies. Believing that there would be no time for the Éothéod to help his armies, Cirion nonetheless met them in battle on the Field of Celebrant, though Gondor's legions were worsted. All hope seemed lost when an army of Orcs came upon the flank of the army of Gondor, but at that moment Eorl and his cavalry thundered out of the north unlooked for and, smashing into the rear of the Balchoth, completely reversed the fortunes of battle. Gondor's army was saved, and the riders of the Éothéod drove the Balchoth into the Anduin. Lee, Stuart D.; Solopova, Elizabeth (2005). The Keys of Middle-earth. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137454690. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Unfinished Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. The capital of Rohan is the fortified town of Edoras, on a hill in a valley of the White Mountains. [T 6] "Edoras" is Old English for "enclosures". [3] The town of Edoras was built by Rohan's second King, Brego son of Eorl the Young. The hill on which Edoras 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. 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 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]. [29] 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, the dash that sweeps away resistance." [27] 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". [27]The armies of Rohan were largely horsemen. The basic tactical unit was the éored, Old English for "a unit of cavalry, a troop", [14] which at the time of the War of the Ring had a nominal strength of 120 riders. [T 16] A known camp was Dunharrow, even deeper in the White Mountains. Additionally, one of the most significant places in Rohan was the Hornburg, a great fortress at the center of the valley of Helm's Deep. In the 13th century of the Third Age, the Kings of Gondor made alliances with the Northmen of Rhovanion, a people thought to be distantly descended from the Edain, those peoples of Men who crossed into Beleriand in the First Age and later settled in Númenor. The Men who would become the Rohirrim were in fact more closely akin to the Beornings and the Men of Dale, and were accounted as Middle Men, who, while not directly descended from the Men of Númenor, never served the will of Sauron. In The Two Towers, Aragorn describes the Rohirrim: 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. Eorl was succeeded upon his death by his son Brego. It was Brego who completed the great hall of Meduseld, which became the home of the Kings of Rohan thereafter. Brego's first son Baldor made a vow to tread the Paths of the Dead at the celebration to commemorate the completion of Meduseld, but was lost in the caverns beneath Dwimorberg. Brego was grieved at the loss of his son and died soon afterward, leaving rule of Rohan to his younger son Aldor. Aldor was called 'the Old', for, coming young to the throne, he ruled the Mark for 75 years.

The Dúnedain of Gondor and the Rohirrim are distantly related, 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. [10] The Rohirrim used the Old English 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. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1967). Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings. reprinted in Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-720907-X. Shippey states further that "the Mark" (or the Riddermark [30]), the land of the Riders of Rohan – all of whom have names in the Mercian dialect of Old English, 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". [31] Jane Ciabattari writes on BBC Culture that Lady Éowyn's fear of being caged rather than "doing great deeds" by riding to battle with the Rohirrim resonated with 1960s feminists, contributing to the success of Lord of the Rings at that time. [32] Portrayal in adaptations [ edit ] Edoras in The Lord of the Rings film trilogyWithin 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 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. The Rohirrim under Théoden arrived at the Hornburg just before the main force of Saruman's army, and through the night, a battle raged for possession of the Hornburg, the fortress that no opposing army had ever taken. Strengthened by what men had retreated from the Fords of Isen and led by Aragorn and Éomer, the Rohirrim managed to repel the hosts of Isengard for most of the night, but as dawn approached, Saruman's secret weapon, a blasting fire, was revealed, and a great breach was torn in the Deeping Wall and main gate. Desiring to make a final stand, Théoden rode down out of the Hornburg with the knights of his household, with Aragorn beside him, and they hewed a path through Saruman's forces to the walls of the fortress. There, they beheld an amazing sight; a forest that had literally appeared overnight - the Huorns. Adding to the dismay of Saruman's army at the sudden onset of the king and his men, as well as the Huorns, Gandalf reappeared, having found Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold, and a thousand more warriors who had survived the battles at the Fords of Isen. With all three allies descending upon the Orcs and Dunlendings, Saruman's forces surrendered or were killed, and Rohan gained a hard-fought victory. Tolkien generally called the language simply "the language of Rohan" or "of the Rohirrim". The adjectival form "Rohirric" is common; Tolkien once also used "Rohanese". [T 17] Like many languages of Men, it is akin to Adûnaic, the language of Númenóreans, and therefore to the Westron or Common Speech. [17] Tolkien invented parts of Middle-earth to resolve the linguistic puzzle he had accidentally created by using different European languages for those of peoples in his legendarium. [18] [T 20] Théoden was referred to as "Théoden King", rather than "King Théoden", just as Anglo-Saxon kings had the word "cyning" ("king") added after their names, rather than before.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954). The Two Towers. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1042159111. On the road to Minas Tirith, Théoden's army received help from Ghân-buri-Ghân, chieftain of the Drúedain, and came to the Rammas Echor at dawn of March 15 of the year 3019. That day he led the Rohirrim onto the Pelennor Fields, and the host of Rohan at first overwhelmed the Orc-legions of Sauron. Théoden then led his knights against the cavalry of the Haradrim as well, personally slaying their chieftain, and hewing his banner. Yet in that moment of great victory for the king, the Lord of the Nazgûl descended upon Théoden and mortally wounded him. Éowyn, sister of Éomer, had ridden to war with the Rohirrim, unknown to any of the men of the Mark, and revealed herself in single combat with the Witch-king. With the aid of Merry, Éowyn slew the Witch-king, and thus won great renown among all the peoples of the west for her bravery. Théoden, as he lay dying, called Éomer, now his heir, King of the Mark, and bade him tell Éowyn farewell, not knowing that his niece had defended him from the Witch-king. His knights bore Théoden's body out of the battle, while Éomer led the Rohirrim in their continued assault upon the Haradrim. The forces of Mordor greatly outnumbered the armies of Gondor and Rohan, however, and defeat appeared nigh, when Aragorn, returning from the Paths of the Dead, came up from the coast in the captured ships of the Corsairs of Umbar. Leading a great many men gathered from the southern fiefs of Gondor his arrival helped to turn the tide of battle. 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. [T 22] History [ edit ] Early history [ edit ]

Rohanese was, like the languages of all Men, akin to Adûnaic, the language of the Edain. The Rohirrim called their homeland the Ridenna-mearc, the Riddermark or Éo-marc, the Horse-mark, also simply the Mark and called themselves the Eorlingas, the Sons of Eorl. In the original Rohanese the name for their land is Lôgrad, with the element "lô-"/"loh-" corresponding to Anglo-Saxon "éo", horse. 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 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, [T 23] like those at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden, or Sutton Hoo in England. [26]