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Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Thirded.). Grafton (HarperCollins). ISBN 978-0261102750. Gríma: possibly from "grima" ("mask", "helmet", "ghost")or from gríma, the icelandic word for mask. Rohan is a fictional kingdom of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy setting of Middle-earth. Known for its horsemen, the Rohirrim, Rohan provides its ally Gondor with cavalry. Its territory is mainly grassland. The Rohirrim call their land the Mark or the Riddermark, names recalling that of the historical kingdom of Mercia, the region of Western England where Tolkien lived.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1967). Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings. reprinted in Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-720907-X. The alliance between Rohan and Gondor came into existence in TA 2510 with the Battle of the Field of Celebrant. Afterwards Cirion, Steward of Gondor granted the land of Calenardhon to Rohan and Eorl swore a perpetual Oath, binding his heirs to a perpetual and mutual alliance with Gondor. Since that time Gondor aided Rohan in TA 2759 and Rohan repaid the debt in TA 2885, resulting in the deaths of King Folcwine's twin sons at the Battle of the Crossings of Poros. After the War of the Ring the Oath of Eorl was sworn again by Éomer and the gift of Cirion confirmed by King Elessar. The capital of Rohan was the hill fort town of Edoras which lay on the slopes of the White Mountains. Another major settlement was Aldburg, capital of the Eastfold and original residence of Eorl the Young. Other settlements may have existed but aside from Grimslade are not named.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 floated in many winds until Éomer grew old" — pg. 438, the Appendix A of The Return of the King

The Rohirrim were famous as skilled horsemen and renowned masters of horse breeding. Among the horses of the Rohirrim were the famed Mearas, the noblest and fastest horses who ever roamed Arda; Shadowfax was the greatest of all Mearas. There were very few Mearas left in Middle-earth at this point, but there were enough that a breeding population was present. The army of Rohan was almost exclusively cavalry, divided into irregular units termed éoreds, raised at need and not maintained on a standing basis. Rohan's foot-men armies were more of a very well trained militia called upon in times of war, the militia of Rohan wielded wooden shields of all sizes and used four weapons: longswords, short bows, axes, and longspears. The actual standing infantry force was relatively small with the professional career limited to the royal bodyguard of Edoras. The King's Company were those men that directly served and protected the king. Rohanese was, like the languages of all Men, akin to Adûnaic, the language of the Edain. The Rohirrim called their homeland the Ridenna-mearc, the Riddermark or Éo-marc, the Horse-mark, also simply the Mark and called themselves the Eorlingas, the Sons of Eorl. In the original Rohanese the name for their land is Lôgrad, with the element "lô-"/"loh-" corresponding to Anglo-Saxon "éo", horse. Rohanese nouns were pluralized with the suffix "-as", as were Old English nouns of the strong-masculine declension. Upstream from Edoras, deeper into Harrowdale, are the hamlets of Upbourn and Underharrow. At the head of Dunharrow (from Old English Dûnhaerg, "the heathen fane on the hillside" [8]) is a refuge, Firienfeld, in the White Mountains. [T 7] Aldburg, capital of the Eastfold, is the original settlement of Eorl the Young. The Hornburg, a major fortress guarding the western region, is in Helm's Deep, a valley in the White Mountains. [T 8] Regions [ edit ]Rohan is derived from Sindarin rochallor - roch means 'horse', but the meaning of the second element is unspecified.

In the 13th century of the Third Age, the Kings of Gondor made alliances with the Northmen of Rhovanion, a people thought to be distantly descended from the Edain, those peoples of Men who crossed into Beleriand in the First Age and later settled in Númenor. The Men who would become the Rohirrim were in fact more closely akin to the Beornings and the Men of Dale, and were accounted as Middle Men, who, while not directly descended from the Men of Númenor, never served the will of Sauron. In The Two Towers, Aragorn describes the Rohirrim: Tolkien generally called the language simply "the language of Rohan" or "of the Rohirrim". The adjectival form "Rohirric" is common; Tolkien once also used "Rohanese". [T 17] Like many languages of Men, it is akin to Adûnaic, the language of Númenóreans, and therefore to the Westron or Common Speech. [17] Tolkien invented parts of Middle-earth to resolve the linguistic puzzle he had accidentally created by using different European languages for those of peoples in his legendarium. [18] [T 20] Within the plot of The Lord of the Rings, Rohan plays a critical role in the action—first against the wizard Saruman in the Battle of the Hornburg, then in the climactic Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There, Théoden leads the Rohirrim to victory against the forces of Mordor; he is killed when his horse falls, but his niece Éowyn kills the leader of the Ringwraiths. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821. The Rohirrim used the Old English patronymic "-ing". They called themselves the Eorlingas, and Beorn’s people were the Beorningas; Scyld's people were the Scyldingas in Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology.

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The names and many details of Rohirric culture are derived from Germanic cultures, particularly that of the Anglo-Saxons and their Old English language, towards which Tolkien felt a strong affinity. Anglo-Saxon England was defeated by the cavalry of the Normans at the Battle of Hastings, and some Tolkien scholars have suggested that the Rohirrim are Tolkien's wishful version of an Anglo-Saxon society that retained a "rider culture", and would have been able to resist such an invasion. [11] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien derived the emblem of the House of Éorl, a "white horse upon green", from the Uffington White Horse carved into the grass of the chalk downs in England. [9] Tolkien stated that the styles of the Bayeux Tapestry, showing horsemen fighting with spears and swords, and armoured with mail shirts and iron helmets, fitted the Rohirrim "well enough". [T 15] Eorl the Young founded the Kingdom of Rohan in the former Calenardhon; the royal family was known as the House of Eorl. The first line of kings lasted for 249 years, until the ninth king Helm Hammerhand died. His sons had been killed earlier, and his nephew Fréaláf Hildeson began the second line of kings, which lasted until the end of the Third Age. The two lines of kings are buried in two lines of grave mounds below the royal hall at Edoras, [T 23] like those at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden, or Sutton Hoo in England. [26] A known camp was Dunharrow, even deeper in the White Mountains. Additionally, one of the most significant places in Rohan was the Hornburg, a great fortress at the center of the valley of Helm's Deep. Rohanese bears a similar relationship to the Common Speech of Middle-earth as that of Old English to modern English, and so Tolkien renders Rohanese names and phrases into Old English (Anglo-Saxon), just as the Common Speech is translated into English. Examples include words such as Mearas (Old English for horses) and éored. Tolkien was a philologist, with a special interest in Germanic languages.

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2. Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-720907-1. The Dúnedain of Gondor and the Rohirrim are distantly related, having descended from the same place. Unlike the inhabitants of Gondor, who are portrayed as enlightened and highly civilized, the Rohirrim are shown as being at a lower level of enlightenment. [10] names are also translations of the original Westron Kuduk (Hobbit) and Rohanese kûd-dûkan (hole dweller). While Tolkien represents the Rohirrim with Anglo-Saxon culture and language, their ancestors are given Gothic attributes. The names of Rhovanion's royal family, (the ancestors of the Rohirrim), include such names as Vidugavia, Vidumavi and Vinitharya, which are of Gothic origin. Vidugavia specifically has been seen as an synonym for Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths in Italy from 536 to 540. [12] Tolkien saw this as a parallel with the real-world relationship between Old English and Gothic. [13]

Arnor (later split into Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur) • Rohan • City of Dale (later became a Kingdom) • Dunland • Lake-town (later part of the Kingdom of Dale) • Gondor • Harad • Khand • Kingdom of Rhovanion • Rhûn • Umbar • Vales of Anduin The countryside of Rohan is described as a land of pastures and lush tall grassland. It looks a lot like the Central Asian steppe or North American Great Plains, as does its climate. The lands of Rohan are frequently described as appearing like "seas of grass". They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and in deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years [...]. It was in forgotten years long ago that Eorl the Young brought them out of the North, and their kinship is rather with the Bardings of Dale, and with the Beornings of the Wood, among whom may still be seen many men tall and fair, as are the Riders of Rohan." — The Two Towers, Book Three, The Riders of Rohan, pg. 41