The Other Way 'Round - Page 10
© Michael Martinez
But Tolkien also looks to the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" for inspiration, as some are quick to point out. The approach of Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli, and Legolas to Edoras has been compared to Beowulf's arrival in Denmark. Guardsmen at the gate of Edoras challenge the four tavelers, and a coastguardsman challenges Beowulf and his fourteen men. Both groups are accompanied to the halls of the local lords, and both guardsmen depart. Heorot, the golden hall of Hrothgar, serves as a convenient model for Meduseld, Theoden's golden-roofed (but otherwise humble and mundane) hall.
Curiously, both Beowulf's Danes and Geats and Homer's Achaeans travel by ship, and they live on islands or on a peninsula jutting out into a small sea. Beowulf and his Geats, and Menelaus and his Achaeans, have crossed their local seas seeking war. Menelaus goes to retrieve his estranged wife, Helen, and Beowulf goes to help Hrothgar defeat a monster. The enemies in "Beowulf" are all monsters, whereas the Achaeans are fighting other men (though half-gods abound on either side, as Zeus and his family have been busily consorting with local families for generations).
There are no monsters threatening Rohan, although the wolf-riders and Orcs are certainly terrifying creatures. But they do not steal into Theoden's hall at night and kill his warriors. Theoden, in fact, commands a very capable army, just as Priam of Troy and Menelaus command very capable armies. The war between Rohan and Isengard depends as much on morale as it does on strategy. Battles rage across the landscape and armies retreat as the fortunes of war scramble from side to side. And just as the Trojans mount an assault on the Achaeans' camp, breaching the walls, so Saruman's army mounts an assault on the Hornburg, in which the walls are breached. Patroclus, Achilles' friend, helps to route the Trojans by donning Achilles' armor and leading the Myrmidons in a counter-attack. But Patroclus is eventually slain, forcing Achilles to make peace with the other chieftains. Theoden and Eomer are estranged over Eomer's breach of orders. But after word arrives of the death of Theodred, the king's son, and Gandalf helps to heal Theoden of his despair, Theoden is reconciled with Eomer.
The striking similarities between the Rohirrim and Homer's heroes are numerous. And Tolkien seems to have added more Homeric elements to the story of the Rohirrim after The Lord of the Rings was published. "The Battles of the Fords of Isen", for example, recounts how Theodred was slain, and the Rohirrim defended his body where it fell much as the Achaeans defended the body of Patroclus.
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