Rohan

Rohan is one of the kingdoms belonging to the fantastic world of The Lord of the Rings (by the British J. R. R. Tolkien). It is a country of warriors and herdsmen, located in the central zone of northwestern Middle-earth, between Anduin, Isen and the Ered Nimrais. Its inhabitants are of the Norse race, descendants of the éothéod of Rhovanion, horse-breeding peoples who had lived during the first centuries of the Third Age in Eriador and who in turn were descendants of the Second House of the Edain who left Beleriand before the last two great wars against Morgoth.

History

The Riders of the Mark are descended from a portion of the Edain of the House of Hador who retraced their steps from Estolad and returned to Eriador before becoming involved in the wars against Morgoth of the First Age. Little is known of the history of these men for the remainder of that age and the next, for they do not appear in the annals of Númenor nor do the Rohirrim themselves keep any recollection or oral or written traditions. It does seem proven that, after the founding of the kingdom of Arnor, in the first centuries of the Third Age, tribes scattered throughout the north of Eriador and the foothills of the Misty Mountains could fight on the side of Westernesse at specific times and always as mercenaries. or militia recruited mostly in Rhûdaur. These men considered themselves Norse, and their traditions and cultural traits resemble those of the cultures of central and eastern Rhovanion of the second millennium T.E.. Disturbed by the wars against Angmar, they probably crossed the Hithaeglir passes to settle in their new homeland.

Alliances with Gondor

In the 13th century TE, the kings of Gondor made alliances with these peoples of Rhovanion, related to the Three Houses of the Men of the First Age. For the kingdom of the south, more advanced and powerful than these tribes, these agreements served for the Norse to occupy border marks that acted as a bulwark and buffer against the hordes of orientals that threatened the stability of the entire northwest of Endor. Authentic 'foedus' of cooperation and alliance in the style of those that Rome established with the Germanic tribes from the III century d. c.

But the Valacar king of Gondor went further and took as his wife Vidumavi, the daughter of the king of the Waildungs (a tribe related to the Éothéod, direct ancestors of the Rohirrim) and self-proclaimed king of all Rhovanion. The southern high nobility did not see this union with good eyes, considering the Nordics a minor race and that in this way the royal lineage of Gondor was "tainted", which eventually caused a rebellion on the part of of Lebennin and the sea captains when the son of Valacar, Eldacar, was crowned, beginning the so-called Struggle between Relatives in the middle of the 15th century, which broke the status quo in the area and allowed the easterners to strengthen. During this Gondorian civil war, the throne of Eldacar was usurped by his cousin Castamir, captain of the Gondor Fleet and Eldacar himself had to go into exile to his mother's homelands in Rhovanion. From there he planned his return to Gondor to regain his throne. When this happened the only army he had was that of éothéod horsemen, and with them he crossed through Anórien and Lossarnach with fire and blood to meet Castamir's main forces face to face in the battle of the Crossings of the Erui, where they came to cross their swords, and where Eldacar slew the usurper.

This was the first and only battle in which Gondorian forces faced Norse shock cavalry (saving distances, from Rohan) and the result was a crushing defeat for Gondor.

These éothéod, or horsemen of the plains, roamed freely throughout the Gondorian province of Dor Rhûnen and were an eminently herding and semi-nomadic people, as they grazed their herds of horses and flocks of sheep in a vast territory between the Anduin and the Sea of Rhûn and the Eastern Cove of Mirkwood and the foothills of the Ered Lithui of Mordor. It was divided into tribes and each one had its thegn or chief and its own assembly of clans or althing. They are the basis and the origin of the people that preceded the Rohirrim in time, and by then they were already fighting alongside Gondor against easterners and southerners and their best horsemen served as allied light cavalry in the Gondorian army itself.

Already in the XIX of the Third Age, the Easterners considered themselves prepared to invade Rhovanion again and, after a series of alliances and agreements, they mobilized several entire nations of charioteers (balchoth, sagath...) to massacre the all the peoples who lived between the sea of Rhûn and Mirkwood. During this contest, Marcwini, althegn of all the éothéod tribes, rescued what he could of his people and other surrounding civilizations, such as Gramuz, Waildungs or Nenedain and, crossing the Anduin, established his new base in the intermediate valleys of the River Big. This mixture of Nordic cultures gave rise to a unique people, the éothéod, the direct ancestors of the Rohirrim.

In the 21st century, the éothéod migrated again; this time to the north, to the high valleys of Anduin, due in large part to their disputes with the dwarves of Moria over the dragon Scatha, whom King éothéod Fram had slain and whose treasure he did not want to share with Durin's people.

Later, in 2509, Cirion the Steward of Gondor sent heralds to the Northmen to help him repulse a combined invasion of Eastmen and Mountain Orcs by virtue of the ancient alliance between the two peoples. Cloudy. Only Eorl the Younger, king of the éothéod, responded, arriving unexpectedly at the decisive battle at the Fields of Celebrant, where the northmen slaughtered the coalition of orcs and easterners and saved the southern kingdom.

As a reward, Eorl was granted the Gondorian province of Calenardhon (Elvish for 'green plain'), and he moved his people there. This land had been part of Gondor, but devastated by the plague of 1636, it was virtually uninhabited. They continued to call themselves éothéod or 'the horsemen', and gave their land the name the Mark, but the men of Gondor called that country Rohan (in Elvish 'Land of horses') and their inhabitants were called Rohirrim.

This first lineage established by Eorl reordered Calenardhon, repopulating the territory, rehabilitating forts (such as the Hornburger, from Numenorean times) and building cities, such as Edoras, whose Meduseld palace was completed by Brego, son of Eorl. The growth of the éothéod people reached the entire population, producing a slow but steady population growth directly proportional to the number of herds of horses that took advantage of the verdant plains and fertile valleys of the foothills of the Ered Nimrais. In time, Rohir influence spread beyond Isen to colonize the fertile floodplains of the River Adorn, causing Dunlending to grow suspicious of the northern push. The apogee of the Horsemen's March would come with Helm Hammerhand, who included de jure as a province the lands beyond Isen, calling them 'the Western March'.

The problem was marked by the stratification of the population of this province, as there was still a predominant Dunlending majority that served as labor on the lands nominally controlled by a minority Rohir who benefited greatly from this relationship. These landlords became so rich that some of them rose through the ranks and were even present at the Althing. A magnate of this western March, Freca, requested during a session of the Althing King Helm the hand of his daughter for his son Wulf. Helm's response was a laugh and a punch to Freca's head, killing her. Then Wulf, whose mother was a Dunlending, led the hill tribes from the foothills of the Hithaeglir and sent them against the March, invading first the lands of the Adorn, then crossing the Fords of Isen and ravaging Rohan. This unexpected coup without prior declaration of war caught Helm off guard and he was unable to prepare and station his people properly. Several times outnumbered and disadvantaged by surprise, the Rohirrim had to cede the Fords and retreat to the fortress-cities of the Ered Nimrais. During the invasion came the Long Winter, during which Helm himself, besieged in the Hornburg, would go out alone at night to kill Dunlendings with his bare hands before dawn and return to the safety of the square. In this way, terror and discouragement spread among the invaders, fearful that any night Helm could choose any of them. One of those nights, Helm did not return and the next morning the highlanders found his body still standing and intact but frozen. Then Fréalaf, the son of Helm's sister, ascended the throne, and before the end of that winter he risked a sortie from the Hornburg that surprised the highlanders and turned the tide of war. Then Fréalaf went to Edoras and slew Wulf in hand-to-hand combat in the very halls of the Meduseld, just as those stationed in the Sanctum were coming down to join the forces of the Westfold. Following the battle, the Dunlendings were finally driven from the Marches. With Helm's death and his succession to his sister's son Hild, the First Line came to an end and the Second Line began, during which Rohan attempted to recover from the devastation suffered throughout the country.

Just after the war, Saruman settled in Isengard at the invitation of Fréalaf himself, as regent of the fortress.

For the next century and a half, the country's slow socioeconomic recovery continued, barely disturbed by tenuous border conflicts in the Adorn. Of course, from the XXX century, orc raids and raids began to proliferate in the Northern Páramo and along the line of Anduin, which troubled the marshals of Estemnet throughout the century. In 3014, Saruman began using his influence to break King Théoden's will as part of a campaign to invade and control the kingdom. Finally, he launched a full-scale offensive against Rohan, winning the battles at the Fords of Isen, where King Théoden's son, Théodred, was slain after having held the position of First Marshal since the start of the contest. The subsequent incursion into the Westfold was halted by the resistance of Théoden himself - freed by Gandalf from the yoke to which Saruman had subjected him through his advisor Gríma - in the fortress of Helm's Deep (Cernavilla), where he had arrived with his éoreds from Edoras to face the army of Dunlendings and Uruks-hai from the renegade Istar. In Hornbühr was part of what was left of the Company of the Ring, which had come with Théoden to the Abyss. At dawn on the second day of the siege the Rohirrim stormed out of the citadel and charged the enemy, breaching their formation, but were immediately surrounded by over 10,000 highlanders and orcs and soon found themselves in dire straits; but then Erkenbrand of Westfold came, and with him the remnants of the corps that had been scattered after the second battle of the Fords. But at the head galloped Gandalf the White and behind them, a "battalion" of ucorns from the Fangorn forest that blocked the way to any attempt to escape from Saruman's hosts. The result of the battle was a crushing victory. Not a single orc ever returned to Orthanc and the surviving Dunlending surrendered and were later released, helping to heal the wounds between the two peoples from the war.

After the victory, Théoden quartered Rohan, calling to arms all available men, to march on Gondor and aid Minas Tirith, even before the red arrow had reached his hands or the beacons of Anórien had struck. been lit. After crossing the forest of Firien through the Pedregal de las Carretas, being helped by the Drúedain, the Rohirrim finally reached the Rammas Echor -the wall that surrounded and protected the esplanade in front of Minas Tirith- and penetrated through a breach in the north wall to arrive in time to turn the tide of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The king fought with great glory, although he was one of the fallen at the end of the day, so Éomer Éadig, his nephew, inherited the throne, thus beginning the Third Lineage. As the new king, Éomer rode with the armies of the Free Peoples before the Morannon and took part in the final battle against the forces of Sauron, who was finally defeated when the Ring of Might was destroyed on the Orodruin.

The Enemy was no more, and all his slaves were annihilated or reneged on their former master, but not the dark men of the south and east who had served under his banner, making it necessary for them to continue to be fought for part of Gondor and Rohan. In the Fourth Age, Éomer and Elessar renewed Eorl's Oath, forging an alliance that laid the foundation for the reordering of northwestern Endor during the first decades of that century. Éomer married Princess Lothíriel of Dol Amroth, daughter of Prince Imrahil, his heir and successor being Elfwine the Fair, second king of the Third Line in 64 C.E.

Geography

Rohan is described by Tolkien as a land of tall, wind-swaying grasses; on many occasions Tolkien refers to it as "a sea of pastures". Towards the end of the Third Age, during the War of the Ring, Rohan had an area of approximately one third of the territories of Gondor and had originally been, under the name of Calenardhon, a province of the southern kingdom.

Regions

The territory of Rohan is organized into three main constituencies:

Estemnet

The Eastern Plain, the great grazing region of the kingdom, located between the Entaguas River, the Ered Nimrais, and the Snowy Stream.

Westemnet

The Western Plain is located between the Entaguas, the White Mountains and the Nevado and Isen courses.

The Wasteland

Region located between the Fangorn Forest and the Curvas del Anduin, its northern limit is the Limclaro River, the Entaguas as its southern border, and bordering on the west with Onodló itself and the Fangorn forest. It is a plateau with few resources that at the end of the Third Age was practically uninhabited.

Limits

Rohan's borders are determined by the rivers Isen and Adorn to the west; to the south the White Mountains that separate it from Gondor; to the east the river Anduin and the current of the Mehring; and the Gladelim and Fangorn Forest to the north.

Cities

The capital of the kingdom is Edoras, at the foot of the Ered Nimrais. At its highest point is the castle of the kings, the Meduseld or Castle of Gold. The Meduseld is a large building with a golden roof, which was built by Brego, son of Eorl, in the year 2569. Inside is the golden throne of the king, great columns covered with gold and walls with reliefs from which rich tapestries hang. Above Edoras is the bastion of El Sagrario, a true sacred refuge for the Rohirrim.

The second most important city is Hornbühr (Cuernavilla in the common language), which is nestled in the Helm Gorge (Helm's Deep), forming a practically impregnable fortress. In Hornbühr are the halls of Aglarond, the Sparkling Caverns, natural cavities in the mountains that were enlarged and improved by Gimli, son of Glóin.

Another city of some relevance is Aldbühr, capital of the East Fold, which was founded by Gondor under the name of Calmirië.

Political and administrative division

The March of the Riders is organized politically into three districts, which in turn constitute military constituencies.

The Wasteland

North of the Entaguas, due to its sparse population it had almost no economic or commercial relevance, as all routes to the high Anduin valleys were often cut off and traffic from Rhovanion arrived via Anórien.

East Fold

It encompasses both the lands south of the Entaguas and the tall pastures north of the river that extend as far as the Páramo. From Aldburgo the herds and the transit of people through the Mehring were controlled.

Westfold

From Fangorn to the mountains to the Snowy, the Westfold concentrates the majority of the Marches population in its valleys. The Hornburg is the strong city and it will be even more so during the Fourth Age, with the demographic recovery.

Military Structure

Brand Marshals

The emnets were commanded by marshals. Their jurisdiction was absolute, since they governed on behalf of the king. During Théoden's reign they were Théodred (first marshal and head of all armies in the absence of his father), Erkenbrand (second marshal, who was in charge of Oestemnet) and Éomer (third marshal, who defended Estemnet).

When Théodred fell at the Fords, Elfhelm took over command of the Edoras regulars, taking over as second-in-command behind the revived King Théoden, who took over as First Marshal.

When Éomer came to the throne, Elfhelm continued to be in charge of the Edoras garrison, which is equivalent to being a high marshal, since in battle he was the highest commander after the king himself. Erkenbrand remained as second marshal and Estemnet, historically in the hands of the House of Éomund (which was the one that now governed the kingdom), fell to the figure of Grimbold, a member of one of the most influential houses and hero of Pelennor.

Eored

Rohan Knight.

It is a cavalry formation, of variable numbers, but in times of war it could reach 2000 horsemen, perfectly mounted and equipped. Each marshal of the brand had next to him an éored of his house, that is, knights who responded directly to the orders of the marshal and who lived in the headquarters of each brand. The other éored were commanded by captains (as in the case of Dúnhere), chosen by the marshals according to their courage and training.

The name éored is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is made up of the particle eoh- meaning 'horse' and the particle -rad meaning means 'to ride'.

Eoherë

This was the name given to the entire cavalry of Rohan and, of course, was made up of all éored. It was commanded by the king himself, since the entire army was never quartered except in case of war. Although probably in the times of the first lineage the total cantonment could have gathered figures close to 30,000 horsemen, Théoden could only gather 10,000 knights in El Sagrario, of which only 6,000 came to the aid of Minas Tirith.

Like éored its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon language, its second particle being -herë, which meant 'host' or 'army', that is, éoherë is 'cavalry army'.

Infantry

The infantry of the kingdom of Rohan is almost non-existent, reduced to garrisons of border posts, forts, and royal guards of the main cities. Although there are no companies of archers as such in the field, there are some on horseback, and they are truly fearsome. Incidentally, the riders of the Mark could score at a high level fighting on foot, for example, during the battles of the Fords of Isen and the Battle of the Hornburg.

Culture

Rohan's banner.

The Dúnedain of Gondor thought the Rohirrim were distantly related to them (having descended from the Atanari or Edain in the First Age) and described them as Middle Men: not as learned and skilled as the Numenóreans, but superior to Men of Darkness, who praised and served Sauron. Actually, not even the elves know its origin. They themselves have no recollection of stories about their past beyond the early Third Age. They are probably Edain descendants of the people of Bereg, Bëor's great-great-grandson, or of the members of the house of Hador who returned over the mountains to Eriador, out of Beleriand before taking part in the wars against Morgoth. The Rohirrim's closest ancestors in time are the éothéod, who were granted the province of Calenardhon by Gondor after they saved the Southern Kingdom at the Battle of the Fields of Celebrant.

The Rohirrim were characterized by being tall, stocky, and pale-skinned and blond-haired, with mostly blue or green eyes. They used to wear their hair long and braided. They were by nature serious, firm and fierce with their enemies, but at the same time generous and jovial in peace.

They had contact with the elves in the First Age, when they learned of Eru. However, like the Dúnedain, they did not worship him in temples. They revered Oromë the Hunter, and called him Béma.

Horses and war

Casco rohir in the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

The Rohirrim were renowned horsemen and horse breeders. His army was mainly made up of cavalry, divided into units called éoreds. The members of this army were mostly well-trained militia called up in times of war; true full-time soldiers were a minor group within the population. They were armed with spears and longswords, and protected themselves with round shields, a light helmet, and mail that reached to the knees.

In times of war, any man capable of wielding a weapon was conscripted into the army; furthermore they were bound by Eorl's Oath to help Gondor in case of need. The request for help was presented by sending the red arrow or by lighting the beacons of Gondor, great bonfires that were lit in times of need and that were aligned on the White Mountains in northern Anórien.

Among Rohan's horses were the mearas, the noblest and swiftest in all of Arda; Felaróf was the father and fastest of all of them.

It is because of this association between man and horse, not only in times of war, that they received the name Rohirrim (which in Sindarin means 'lords of the horses') and Rohan (derived from rochand, which means 'house of the lords of the horses').

Politics

Rohan, at the end of the Third Age, maintains a socio-political system similar to the early medieval European feudal system, with a noble caste of territorial knights who are vassals of the king and administer their fiefs in his name. In each emnet, they must also obey their corresponding marshal, who functions just like a gunner or even a viceroy from the Renaissance period. The clan system is then almost disappeared, but the houses persist as maintainers of the established order. Obviously, it is very difficult to climb the social ladder and birth delimits the condition of each individual. The houses with privileges are represented in the Assembly or Althing, the only chamber representing the people before the king and, in practice, authentic medieval courts. In this case, it is not of an itinerant palatine court, since the capital always resides in Edoras, but it is similar in its almost complete nullity for obtaining charters granted by the monarch and in the application of reforms on the land or on the approval of laws in general. Executive power was held by the King's Council, a consultative body that advised the monarch on everything concerning foreign policy and government of the Court.

Alliance with Gondor

The alliance between Gondor and Rohan has existed since 2510 T.E., when the Easterners threatened to overrun the country. Following the Battle of the Celebrant (c. 2509), where the army of the Balchoth Confederacy was annihilated, the seneschal Cirion invited the éotheod to settle in the largely uninhabited province of Calenardhon, to which the éotheod althegn, Eorl, agreed. after consultation with their captains.

In this way the Eorl Oath was pronounced, sealing the alliance of mutual aid between the two peoples. Since then, the Rohirrim have crossed vast tracts of land to aid their allies, even sacrificing two of the heirs to the throne when the Haradrim threatened Ithilien in 2885 and Fastred and Folcred, the sons of King Folcwine, fell during the Battle of the Fords. of the Poros. King Théoden would also honor the oath by commanding troops at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields during the War of the Ring. In contrast, Gondor has only aided Rohan once, after the Long Winter of 2758-2759 TE, when the Marches were overrun by the Dunlendings.

Wars with Dunlending

Beyond the Western March between Isen and Adorn, and going up through Eriador, live the Dunlendings, a people descended from the Daen Coentis who inhabited all the territories attached to the NW coasts of Endor at the time of the Numenorean conquest. The Mark's relations with this town were almost never friendly. The Dunlendings have always accused Eorl of having occupied the lands of his ancestors taken from them by Gondor, and they claim Rohan as their own. Wars between Dunland and the March will be frequent since the Rohir conquest of the land between Adorn and Isen and the Long Winter. The high points of this confrontation are the mountainous invasion of Rohan in the time of the first lineage and the battles of the Fords of Isen and the Hornburg during the War of the Ring.

In the Fourth Age, both peoples would soften their relations and frequently reach mutual understanding and establish beneficial agreements for both parties.

Some important Rohirrim

• Eorl the Young
• Aldor the Old
• Helm Hand Hammer
• Théoden the Renaissance
• Eomer
• Eowyn
• Gríma Serpent Language