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How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

Another striking dissimilarity between the Rohirrim and the people of the sagas is the fact the Icelanders and their relatives in Scandinavia and Europe were literate. The Rohirrim did not write, according to Tolkien, although there must have been some among them who learned the Cirth and Tengwar through Gondorian influence. Iceland developed a literary center at Oddi in the 11th century. Runestones are common throughout the northern world, and as Christianity spread among the northern peoples so, too, did the Latin alphabet spread among them. The history of northern Europe is one of fragmentation, migration, and occasional reintegration. The Germanic peoples were traditionally divided into three groups: the West Germans, the northerners, and the East Germans. The West Germans were the most primitive group. The northern peoples mingled with early Scandinavians to produce the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians, but the East Germans also came from this group. The Goths, Vandals, and other tribes who migrated from Scandinavia around the 2nd century BCE to the southern Baltic coast eventually followed the Vistula river down into the steppes north of the Black Sea. The East Germans acquired steppe culture customs, such as the widespread use of horses and mounted warfare tactics, while retaining knowledge of sedentary agriculture. They produced a remarkable blend of eastern and western lifestyles which gave them their own unique character. The groups who remained behind in Scandinavia eventually coelesced into large nations, but the process took another thousand years. In that time, the Cimbri, Teutoni, Angles, and other tribes migrated to other lands. And as the ancient Roman culture was gradually superceded by hybrid Germano-Roman states in Gaul and Iberia, adventurers began crossing the seas in search of fortune and new homes. Most of Brittannia thus fell into the hands of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, and other Germans and became Angle-land, England. The West Germans were composed of dozens of tribes which gradually formed confederations, perhaps the eldest of which (certainly the first one mentioned by Roman writers) were the Suebi. Tacitus mentions a few Suebic tribes, who in later centuries spread across Europe. Suebi settled as far away as Iberia. But the two most well-known confederations were the Saxons and Franks. The Franks lived close to Gaul and they eventually conquered that land, making it into Frankia, France. The most notable Frankish tribe were the Chatti, from whom came the Batavians, a Germanic people used by the Romans as auxiliaries in many campaigns. The Chatti fielded a great infantry force, but centuries later the Frankish cavalry of Charles Martel would signal the advent of a new power in Europe.

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