The Other Way 'Round - Page 9
© Michael Martinez
In Letter 156, Tolkien said that the Numenoreans "were still living on the borders of myth". His story "exhibits 'myth' passing into History or the Dominion of Men". He was seeking "heroic legend on the brink of fairy-tale and history" (Letter 131). He strove to provide a Homeric link between his contemporary audience and an imaginary past which seems as real as the legendary past Homer and the Cyclic Poets immortalized.
The Cyclic Epic, of course, does not concern itself with the battle between an incarnate evil being and free peoples. Instead, it details the moral struggles of the Achaeans and Trojans (and their allies) to come to terms with the choices they have made. Homer's warriors are both noble and petty, gallant and petulant. Glaucus and Diomedes exchange armor and vow not to attack each other in battle; Achilles sulks in his tent over the loss of a slave-girl while the Trojans run down the other Achaeans. The Epic Cycle balances the struggles of men with the struggles of the Olympian gods. They know that Troy must eventually fall, but some of the Olympians sneak around and help the Achaeans, and Zeus waffles back and forth between favors owed to followers and family.
In much the same way, Tolkien's Rohirrim are engaged in a struggle with other men, the Dunlendings, which has become swept up in the greater battle with Sauron (and Saruman, who is Sauron's surrogate). The Rohirrim fight Orcs and live close to Ents, all creatures of fantasy, but they are mythologically equivalent to men. That is, the Ents and Orcs are what Tolkien would call "aspects of the humane", and they represent human interests (isolationist communities and barbaric ravaging hordes). The Rohan-Dunland conflict only briefly rises to the surface in The Lord of the Rings, but it is the underlying reason for the peril which threatens Rohan. The Rohirrim, for their part, are ambivalent toward the Dunlendings; sometimes they intermarry with the Dunlendings, and sometimes they exchange brutal raids with the Dunlendings.
Tolkien introduces the reader to the Rohirrim through a heroic procession as Eomer and 114 Riders pass by Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas. Protected by Elvish cloaks, Aragorn and his companions are nearly invisible to the Rohirrim, just as Achaeans and Trojans are occasionally hidden in clouds and whisked past each other by their meddling gods. When Aragorn and Eomer meet face to face, they nearly come to blows, but Aragorn reminds Eomer that they have a common foe, and he acknowledges a past relationship with Eomer's father, just as Diomedes acknowledges a family connection with Glaucus' family. The two do not exchange armor, but Eomer lends Aragorn and his companions two horses, a risky act which evokes the one-sided exchange between Glaucus and Diomedes: Glaucus' golden armor was worth ten times Diomedes' bronze armor.
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