Home » Reading & Literature » J.R.R. Tolkien » How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? - Page 8

How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? - Page 8

© Michael Martinez

Years later, in 1944, the Eotheod aided Gondor against the Wainriders again. Their leader's name is only partially recorded (it contains the stem marh-). He was probably Marhwini's grandson or great-grandson (this was almost 90 years after the young Marhwini led the exiles to the Vales of Anduin). And the great cavalry force Earnur recruited from the Vales of Anduin for the expedition to Arnor in 1975 was probably composed of Eotheod warriors. Their leader by this time was Frumgar, whose name reflects a shift in language among the Eotheod. In 1977 he led his people north to settle about the two rivers which converged to form the Anduin. For more than 500 years the Eotheod remained isolated from other peoples, having only occasional contact with Gondor. Whatever diversity the ancestors of the Eotheod once may have known (as various tribes or clans) was therefore lost through the centuries. The original band of exiles must have numbered only a few hundred warriors (certainly no more than a couple thousand) and their families at most. By Eorl's day more than 600 years later they were able to field an army of more than seven thousand Riders and they were beginning to feel crowded in their northern land. But there is no evidence that their numbers had been increased by additional migrations from other northern peoples (Northmen continued to live in at least two parts of Mirkwood and at least two regions along the Celduin). Hence, the Eotheod who migrated south to Calenardhon were a homogenous people unlike the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, and unlike the Franks they did not settle among other peoples or conquer other tribes. Some of Calenardhon's original inhabitants fled across the Adorn river in the west and from there began slowly spreading eastward. The westernmost Rohirrim mingled with these people to produce the semi-loyal families who supported Freca and later were not wholly trusted by Theoden's marshals. But the Rohirrim remained for the most part a coherent and single people. Whatever clans or family traditions they may have developed are undocumented. We know hardly anything of the families outside the descendants of Eorl. Freca was himself a descendant of Eorl, and the only other family of significance would be Erkenbrand's. He was Lord of Westfold and his nephew was Dunhere (Lord of Harrowdale), who fell in the Battle of the Pelennor fields. But though there is occasional reference to "the Men of Westfold", there is really no indication of distinct peoples among the Rohirrim.

The copyright of the article How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? - Page 8 in J.R.R. Tolkien is owned by Michael Martinez. Permission to republish How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? - Page 8 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.