#oath of eorl

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

While we’re all marking the battle at the Morannon and the destruction of the ring today, let us not forget that March 25 is ALSO the day that Borondir, the messenger of Cirion, first reached Eorl and his people back in T.A. 2510 to ask for the help of the Éothéod in driving invaders out of Gondor.

Of course, when Gondor called for aid, (proto) Rohan answered, and we eventually got the Oath of Eorl and the founding of Rohan and the start of 500 years of steadfast allies and friends. So this is a momentous day for all of Middle Earth, but especially for the Rohirrim and, as a huge Rohan partisan, I will be celebrating it as such.

#lotr #lord of the rings #tolkien #rohan #forth eorlingas #oath of eorl #🐎🗡️♥️

[camille-lachenille]

Playlist for the 25th March

For the Battle of the Black Gate (T.A. 3019):

For the Oath of Eorl (T.A. 2510):

#this happened today #tolkien #the lord of the rings #battle of the morannon #battle of the black gate #oath of eorl #eorl the young #rohan #gondor #Spotify

[vintonharper]

Just a chill day rediscovering these Unfinished Tales (again). Even the stuff he never got around to writing is gripping. I just love reading about the complete backstories of pretty much every detail. (And yet again, Isildur maligned by Peter Jackson as simply an arrogant no-name who only wanted the One Ring for himself, like he did nothing else.)

#jrr tolkien #jrrt #tolkien #unfinished tales #cirion and eorl #amon anwar #lord of the rings #elendil #cirion #left-handed scribbles #gondor #eorl #the éothéod #rohan #oath of eorl #tolkien quotes

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Oath of Eorl

Artist: Randy Gallegos TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

#mtg #magic the gathering #tcg #randy gallegos #oath of eorl #tales of middle-earth commander #enchantment #saga

[almostlookedhuman]

#universes beyond #mtg #lotr #oath of eorl #arda #gallegos

[tenth-sentence]

Often he fulfilled it.

"The Lord of the Rings: Appendices - Appendix A" - J.R.R. Tolkien

#book quote #lotr #lord of the rings #jrr tolkien #appendices #appendix #annals of the kings and rulers #the house of eorl #oath of eorl #eomer

[cornerful]

'Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten their grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him. That old hatred Saruman has inflamed.'

The men of Dunland were amazed; for Saruman had told them that the men of Rohan were cruel and burned their captives alive.

A few things:

- it is wrong to send an army to go kill a bunch of people, obviously.

- Saruman lied to the men of Dunland, was not a trustworthy ally, and did not have their best interests at heart. Following him? Bad choice.

- Nevertheless the men of Dunland probably have not forgotten Gondor's "gift" of land to Rohan for a reason. Was that their land?? Sure seems like it might've been.

- Their relief that Rohan isn't going to torture the survivors should not be taken as evidence that there is no legitimate grievance or that Rohan has done no wrong to these people at all.

- I'm side eyeing the hell out of 'we pardon you for attacking us but you must swear an oath never to cross the river in arms again' in the same breath as telling them they may return "free" to their land. Yes, it would be great if no one ever marched anywhere in arms but what right does Rohan have to demand this oath? It's a means of protecting their people, great, but what Right have they and Why do they make no similar pledge? I'd sure like to know what the political situation is between these two because the fact is I don't, and this story doesn't focus on it, but the picture it's painting makes me feel icky.

On Commentary:

- the purpose of pointing out potentially colonialist narratives in fiction is not to fling accusations or win social awareness points. The way we interact with fiction is entwined with the way we act irl towards real people, and the goal here is to collectively root out gross frameworks of thought that are baked into us by the powers that be that profit from injustice. Team work makes the dream work

- it is because I enjoy lotr so much that I devote thought to being critical of it. (Hell, this is barely even criticism.) This is learning, not mudslinging. "Bad person for enjoying media" is not a game we play in my house.

-Characters behaving badly is not evidence that the author is ignorant or malicious, or that he isn't, and in fact authorial intent is entirely beside my point at the moment. The text must be able to stand on its own. Deciding which people are Good (aware) and Bad (ignorant) is silly, unhelpful, and a distraction. No one is immune to bias, and no one is incapable of change.

#bit late on the posting my head fucning hurtssss lol #colonialism in tolkien #lotr newsletter #lotrn304 #the oath thing just bothers me #dont march in arms like ok but You just did and i dont see anyone calling that unjust #the blanket forbidding of it smells like 'you will never have a legitimate reason to do so bc i said so. not like us #and the buying of that oath with mercy is like.......gross #idk there is like no info on their tensions so...whatever but like <_< #food for thought #im also rly curious abt what the dunland guys call themselves bc uhhhhh yeah that's another layer to it

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

for the characters ask - what about eowyn? :)

oooooh, yessss I love me Eowyn-Dernhelm

First impression

You know, I initially didn't like her. At least in the movies. She came off a little too much of "I'm not like other girls~~~" for my tastes.

In the books, though, I always loved her because she was a stone cold bitch for 90% of the time until her personality transplant at the end.

Impression now

I still prefer book Eowyn to movie Eowyn (I personally find move Eowyn too 2D for my tastes).

I like book Eowyn for her flintiness. Strike her at the right (wrong?) angle and you'll start a forest fire. She would walk on you in a sexy way but it would also absolutely hurt. And that would be the point.

I also like book Eowyn's selfishness that runs equal to her brazenness, her fearlessness, her rage, her love. She's just as impulsive as her brother, it's simply masked more. I also really love her as a foil/mirroring to Grima - especially the mutual selfish Oath Breaking aspects of their characters. She's also just as likely to burn the world down, if for radically different reasons and done through a radically different way. I think that's a very nice, subtle touch on Tolkien's part.

The ambiguity of her gender subversion is also fun. It doesn't feel like the "~~I want to be a knight UWU I'm not like other girls UWU~~~" that a lot of characters can fall into who follow the same trope line as Eowyn. I'm so glad she escapes that and it feels more nuanced and complex.

I just love, love, love Book Eowyn's anger and recklessness and yeah. All her faults. She, like her uncle, is deeply human in a way that I appreciate.

Favorite moment

In the books - absolutely her argument/heated discussion with Aragorn before he leaves for the Paths of the Dead. Where she says that line about how when the men have died in battle and honour, women have leave to be burned in the houses the men left behind. And also that if someone tells her do her duty one more time she's going to shank a bitch (perhaps not exactly what she said, but the essence is there).

I also love the scene in the books when Theoden is like "but who will take care of Edoras while we're at Helm's Deep? My son is dead and Eomer won't listen to me if I told him to stay put. No one is left" and Hama is like, "???? Eowyn???? wtf how are you overlooking her???" And then she takes her vow/oath to stay and defend Edoras and she gets the great like about how there will be a Return of the King (to Edoras, she just means her uncle).

In the movies - I'm not sure. I suppose the scene with Grima at Theodred's deathbed is an interesting one.

Idea for a story

Same one as I did for Boromir: What if Boromir lives and Eowyn gets to shack up with him and Aragorn as the ultimate power couple? Let the woman be queen of Gondor!!

Unpopular opinion

I think movie Eowyn is a bit boring/too sad/needs way more rage in her. Be uglier! Be more insane! You're from the House of Eorl - no one in that family is normal!

In both book and movies, I don't think her relationship with Faramir is earned. And I know it's because Tolkien initially intended her for Aragorn then made a last minute change-up so there's really no building up of why they're good for each other and how it is she could possibly be happy settling for something we have been told over the course of last two books isn't what she wants.

Yeah, yeah, "she healed" or whatever and found a happier way to be after the war but it just reads as weak. Like, to me it just seems clearly shoehorned in as Tolkien absolutely pulled his punch so far as Eowyn's ending is concerned. He could have done better.

(Honestly, Aragorn has always made waaaay more sense as a partner for Eowyn than Faramir. It was such a let down to me as a kid watching the movies that they didn't end up together. I was like "whatever, Arwen has 2 minutes of screen time. Don't care. Let Aragorn get with this woman who sword fights and makes him laugh.")

I suspect my other unpopular opinion is that I don't think she and Eomer were ever very close. They do not give off vibes of siblings who confide in one another. It's clearly the sort of relationship where Eowyn is like "yeah that's my brother...I know absolutely nothing about him and vice versa. Despite his absence from my life he is still somehow overbearing and over-protective."

I mean we get that scene in the books where Eomer basically admits he doesn't know his sister at all and was always too busy to make time for her (and he regrets this).

But I know fandom likes to write them as besties.

Favorite relationship

Theoden, of course! I love her relationship with her uncle who is her veritable dad. I think it's so sweet and probably one of the most important relationships in her life. I can't imagine what she felt when he died in front of her. Like, the heart shattering and the anger and the grief and so on. It must have been a red-hot knife to the chest.

I also like her and Aragorn in the book. They have great conversations and clearly are able to push against one another yet still clearly respect and care for each other.

Favorite headcanon

(Power couple with Boromir and Aragorn)

She cut her hair when she became Dernhelm. None of this flowing locks down to her ass somehow hidden under her helmet. Do you know how much hair she would have? Absolutely not. She chopped that shit off Mulan-style. It was somewhere between chin and shoulders in the style of Rohirrim men.

----

Thank you so much for the ask! :D :D

#eowyn #eomer #theoden #lotr #lord of the rings #ask #ask game #ask meme #character ask #reply #anon

[lightthewaybackhome]

Now, is the hour come, Riders of the Mark, sons of Eorl! Foes and fire are before you, and your homes far behind. Yet, though you fight upon an alien field, the glory that you reap there shall be your own for ever. Oaths ye have taken: now fulfill them all, to lord and land and league of friendship!

Theoden, Return of the King, JRR Tolkien

#the lord of the rings #the return of the king #jrr tolkien #the ride of the rohirrim #probably my favorite chapter

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

I’m (maybe?) almost done with a Théodred story I’ve been working on for a long time and, in looking back over some of my notes about his canon life, I couldn’t help clocking the many similarities between his experiences and those of LOTR’s other first son of a kingdom of men, Boromir. It’s not super relevant to my story, but I ended up with this running list and I’m just sticking it here because why not. None of this is groundbreaking stuff (and there are probably more) but so far I have that Théodred and Boromir both:

1. Were heirs to the leadership of their respective realms and held their land’s senior military positions (Second Marshal for Théodred—there being no First Marshal at the time—and Captain of the White Tower for Boromir).

2. Lost their mothers early (Théodred at birth and Boromir at age 10) and grew up in households run entirely by powerful fathers who never remarried.

3. Ended up taking on dangerous challenges at least in part because those fathers were both having their reason and good judgment manipulated by opponents (Théoden through the treachery of Gríma/Saruman and Denethor by the selective truths shown to him by Sauron in the palantír).

4. Got killed in a battle where their opponents were targeting them to the exclusion of others around them (Saruman’s forces at the Isen were told to kill Théodred at all costs even while “disregarding” others, and the orcs at Parth Galen fire their arrows “always at Boromir” while leaving Merry and Pip untouched).

5. Were trying to summon aid at the time they were struck down (Théodred is shouting “To me, Eorlingas!” to summon reinforcements when he’s fatally wounded. Boromir blows his great horn to alert the rest of the fellowship before he’s brought down).

6. Took massive injuries but lived long enough afterward to pass on last words in which they invoke the names of the men who will come to replace them as leaders and express the hope that those next leaders will achieve victory (Elfhelm and Grimbold believe Théodred is dead before they discover he’s still breathing just enough to say, “Let me lie here to keep the fords til Éomer comes.” Boromir, as we all know, lays there with those arrows in his chest long enough to be found by Aragorn, at which point he says, “Farewell, Aragorn. Go to Minas Tirith and save my people.”).

7. Died within hours of each other (Théodred on the night on February 25 and Boromir around midday on the 26) at the same age of 41 because, oh yeah, they were also born within months of each other.

8. Didn’t get a burial/funeral in keeping with their status and the traditions of their people because they died in awful circumstances far from home (Théodred dies and is buried by Elfhelm and Grimbold’s companies at the fords rather than in the barrows outside of Edoras with his ancestors. Boromir is sent over the falls by the three hunters instead of laying in Rath Dínen with the other kings and stewards of Gondor).

9. Mentored and protected little brother-type figures (Faramir as Boromir’s actual little brother and Éomer as Théodred’s cousin/adopted little bro) who would go on to achieve what they were unable to do themselves while alive.

10. Died unmarried and childless despite being extremely marriageable, in the primes of their lives and presumably expected to produce another heir. (There’s an explanation given for Boromir—he’s not into women and prefers fighting and arms—though there is none for Théodred.) (Like many other people, I have my own personal HC for Théodred’s romantic life, but that’s for another day.)

I’m not sure what to make of all that, but I find it interesting. We hear so often about contrasts between Gondor and Rohan—the different histories and heritages, the personality of cold, hard Denethor against kindly, grandfatherly Théoden, the magisterial stone and marble of Minas Tirith versus the rustic wood and thatch of Edoras, Gondor’s vast libraries and the Rohirrim’s oral traditions—but they’re so deeply linked as kingdoms and as individuals. By fate and by choice, they’re inextricably tied together, and I love the amount of detail that went into creating and including the subtle parallels between the first sons of each land as just one more way to see those ties play out.

#lord of the rings #lotr #boromir #theodred #théodred #rohan #gondor #oath of eorl #first sons #shared histories

[caenith]

'Now is the hour come, Riders of the Mark, sons of Eorl! Foes and fire are before you, and your homes far behind. Yet, though you fight upon an alien field, the glory that you reap there shall be your own for ever. Oaths ye have taken: now fulfil them all, to lord and land and league of friendship!'

I would FIGHT for this man.

#tolkien #lotr #lotr newsletter #theoden

[swordoaths]

Éomer Headcanons

“Then one rode forward, a tall man, taller than all the rest, from his helm as crest a white horsetail flowed.” The Two Towers

“The Rohirrim were generally shorter, for in their far off ancestry they had been mingled with men of broader and heavier build. Éomer was said to have been tall, of like height with Aragorn, but he with other descendants of King Thengel were taller than the norm of Rohan, deriving this characteristic (together in some cases with darker hair), from Morwen, Thengel’s wife, a lady of Gondor of high Númenórean descent.” The Unfinished Tales

As we know from the text above, Éomer has been described as the tallest of the Rohirrim*, a height by which is quoted not be be the normal in Rohan. It is a direct inheritance from his grandmother, Morwen, because of her Númenórean heritage. 

I draw this out because part of Morwen’s heritage lives on physically through Éomer and his height, whilst Éomer also being "like his fathers before him" (Appendix A) in appearance (think about Éomer's light colored hair, his stern features, etc.) This combination of height stemming from Gondor and physical appearance stemming from Rohan is a physical reminder of the alliance and connection between the people of Rohan and Gondor. 

But, of course, you can look the part, but can you actually deliver? Yes. Éomer does. He carried out the connection between Rohan and Gondor through taking and fulfilling the Oath of Eorl: 

“Éomer took the Oath of Eorl (alliance of Rohan and Gondor). Often he fulfilled it. For though Sauron had passed, the hatreds and evils that he bred had not died, and the King of the West had many enemies to subdue before the White Tree could grow in peace. And wherever King Elessar went with war King Éomer went with him; and beyond the Sea of Rhûn and on the far fields of the South, the thunder of the cavalry of the Mark was heard, and the White Horse upon Green flew in many winds until Éomer grew old.” Appendix A, II, House of Eorl 

*Side note: You may ask how tall is Éomer exactly? Since his height is said to be that of Aragorn’s, I’ve generally found that measurement to be about 6′6″. 

#&. éomer headcanons #&. queue

[periantari]

“Now is the hour come, Riders of the Mark, sons of Eorl! Foes and fire are before you, and your homes far behind. Yet, though you fight upon an alien field, the glory that you reap there shall be your own for ever. Oaths ye have taken: now fulfil them all, to lord and land and league of friendship!”

Theoden, King of the Mark, RotK

#epic #lotr #love #tolkien #book quotes

[cat-in-a-frogsuit]

'Now is the hour come, Riders of the Mark, sons of Eorl! Foes and fire are before you, and your homes far behind. Yet, though you fight upon an alien field, the glory that you reap there shall be your own for ever. Oaths ye have taken: now fulfil them all, to lord and land and league of friendship!'

Friendship 🥹

Forth now, and fear no darkness!

Théoden 😭

#Theoden #Rohirrim #lotr #lotr newsletter: March 15th

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Primarily for @antecubital-fossa, but also because I think about this 10-second clip from an old and increasingly hard to find LotR: The Two Towers behind the scenes documentary approximately twice a day.

#The Lord of the Rings #miranda otto #eowyn #making of #video #and then they cut the whole lil side story and didn't even put it in the extended edition... rip #fandom: oath of cirion and eorl #tolkien #ah yes... the ur-fandom #indeed #often when i am frustrated i scream motherFUCKER in this exact tone of voice #sadly usually not while waving a sword around #but SOMETIMES

[starillion]

Vanda sina termaruva Elenna-nóreo alcar enyalien ar Elendil Vorondo voronwë. Nai tiruvantes i hárar mahalmassen mi Númen ar i Eru i or ilyë mahalmar eä tennoio.

-oath of cirion and eorl, unfinished tales

more aesthetic vr i hope??

#silmarillion #unfinished tales #jrr tolkien #lotr #middle earth #oath of cirion #quenya #calligraphy #tolkien shitpost #forgiveme for any mistakes